The Girls Who Lived: Chamber of Secrets
by kamuinoyume
Summary: Sequel of The Girls Who Lived: Philosopher's Stone.
1. Chapter 1

**AN**: This one's not finished, I have about 1 and ½ chapters left, but I will still be uploading this weekly on Friday.

**Chapter 1: Have you met Malfoy?**

"So, let me get this straight, I tie a note to this bird's leg and she will deliver it to you at that school of yours, even if I don't know the address?" asked Vernon for the thousand time.

"Yes dad, that's how you do it," nodded Diana, a slight trail of impatience had begun clouding her voice for a while now, but she tried being civil to her father, after all, she had been just as thick headed when she first heard that owl were used to deliver messages in the wizarding world.

"I don't understand why we can't use telephones or cell-phones at least!" whined Petunia while shooting a disdainful look at the barn owl the girls had bought for her on their last visit to Diagon Alley.

"That's because mug- I mean, modern technology doesn't work at Hogwarts, and they don't have a phone line installed," Heidi answered mentally cursing herself for her slip. She had unfortunately mentioned the word _Muggle_ to her parents a few days ago, and well, it was natural that they be offended by the term, even though Heidi had tried to explained that it was something similar as them calling the magical people witches and wizards, but to no avail; some things were just better left unsaid.

Vernon glared at his daughter, but refused to acknowledge the slip, he unlike Petunia was finding it more difficult to adapt to the discovery that there were…_abnormal_ people among his pairs, and he sometimes pretended that he had forgotten all about the trip to Diagon Alley, or the spells that the girls had performed right in front of their eyes. Heidi of course considered this to be a transition of sorts, from the normal life that he knew to the one where he had to accept that his two daughters were abnormal people.

Dudley, on the other hand had, no problem with anything, he was dang proud of his two sisters, but there was still something that bothered him about the whole situation, and that was:

"You're dating someone aren't you?" he asked scrutinizing his sister with a glare.

"Why of course Dudley dear, did you think I'd miss out on the opportunity of dating when you're not breathing down my neck," Diana answered sweetly.

Dudley turned red in a matter of seconds. "I told you, you weren't allowed to date!" he growled furiously.

"Oh, really? Well, why don't you go sort it out with my _boyfriend_ - if you find him that is."

Diana _loved_ taunting Dudley about the whole boyfriend issue, even though she did not have one.

"She's not dating," Heidi said flatly, eager to get the argument over and done with.

"Traitor!" Diana gave her sister a death-glare.

"Now family; today is not the time for quarreling!" Vernon chastised. "I hope you don't behave like that in front of the Moirés!"

"Don't worry dad, we wont," Diana promised. She was Vernon's spoiled little princess after all, and she knew the privileges she'd be entitled to if she behaved tonight and was hardly going to give them up.

"I think we should run through the schedule one more time," said Vernon. "We should all be in position at eight o'clock. Petunia, you will be —?"

"In the lounge," said Petunia promptly, "waiting to welcome them graciously to our home."

"Good, good. And Dudley?"

"I'll be waiting to open the door." Dudley put on a foul, simpering smile. "May I take your coats, Mr. and Mrs. Moiré?"

"They'll love him!" cried Petunia rapturously.

"Excellent, Dudley," said Vernon. Then he turned towards his two daughters. "And you will be…?"

"In the living room, looking as cute as two little angels, we will give them a curt bow before complimenting them on their looks," said Diana.

"Then we'll sit down and wait for diner to start, only intervening in the conversation when we deem worthy," finished Heidi.

"Perfect!" cried Petunia.

"At eight-fifteen —" asked Vernon.

"I'll announce dinner," said Petunia. "Then me and Heidi will exit the room and prepare the table."

"And, Dudley, you'll say —"

"May I take you through to the dining room, Mrs. Moiré?" said Dudley, offering his arm to an invisible woman.

"And Diana you will-"

"Offer to guide Mr. Moiré in the dining room," said Diana cheerfully.

"Now, we should aim to get in a few good compliments at dinner. Petunia, any ideas?"

"Vernon tells me you're a wonderful golfer, Mr. Moiré… Do tell me where you bought your dress, Mrs. Moiré…"

"Perfect… Dudley?"

"How about —'We had to write an essay about our hero at school, Mr. Moiré, and I wrote about you.'"

Dudley and the twins sniggered slightly at the comment, while Petunia burst into tears and hugged (strangled better said), the three kids.

"Girls?"

"Seriously dad! You know how charming we could be when we want to," scoffed Diana.

"Very well princess. Tonight is the night when you all have to shine at your fullest; I know you will not disappoint me." Vernon gave his family a proud look before rushing them up to change.

For tonight the twins had to wear dresses that seemed to be made for Barbie dolls in Diana's opinion. They were similar to the dressed that you usually saw little girls wear in old movies. One was blue and the other one was a pale pink color. They had matching tiaras to wear, that looked slightly like jewelry, but under a closer inspection, you could clearly see they were fake. Dudley had to wear a suit (Vernon had to pay him fifty bucks to convince him to do so). Vernon too was dressed in an old fashion gray suit while Petunia was wearing a salmon-pink cocktail dress.

Heidi and Petunia finished dressing in a matter of seconds while Diana was still in her room by the time the clock reached seven sharp, Vernon and Dudley were sitting in the living room, mumbling to themselves while waiting for the Moirés.

Diana was just about to leave her room when she heard a slight tap at her window and turned around to see the pumped-up eagle she had gotten so use to over the summer. She quickly made her way towards the impatient bird and let her in. The bird however didn't make a move to come in, but instead stuck out its leg, where a piece of parchment was neatly tied and a small package was hanging loosely in its beak.

"Another letter from the brat?" sighed Diana and took the package and parchment from the eagle which promptly scurried away. She unfolded the parchment to see the neat signature of D. Malfoy at the bottom.

In the pass few months the only person to ever write to them had been Draco Malfoy, though the girls had phoned Hermione and she had assured them she had sent them plenty of letters, but they hadn't replied to any, which surprised the girls since they too had sent a bunch of letters to Hermione, Neville, Hagrid, heck Heidi had tried writing to Dumbledore, but that hadn't worked either; and since Malfoy's letter's were the only ones that got through, Heidi had cocked up the theory that he was somehow intercepting their mails; though Diana had asked and the boy had swore he didn't do anything.

Diana glared at the present in her hands and wondered if she aught to open it now or leave it for later. She decided she really wanted to know so she did open it. Inside was a beautiful emerald necklace that looked to have cost about a fortune. Diana was stuck glaring mesmerized at it for a moment then snapped back to reality as she heard the door to her sister's room open and close. She looked at the watch and sighed in relief when she saw she still had about thirty five minutes before the Moirés arrived and decided to read the letter as well.

_Dear Missis Potter, soon to be Malfoy,_

_Pleas accept this early birthday present from your humbled admirer, and know that I would be very disappointed if you did not wear it for tonight and for your birthday. And please make no mistake, I will be sending you an actual birthday present tomorrow by owl. I hope this reaches you in good health and that the mysterious mail snatcher does not manage to intercept my eagle. I will see you soon, _

_D. Malfoy_

Diana couldn't help but laugh slightly whenever she read a letter from the blond prat. He was always so danged convinced that she'd one day become misses Malfoy.

_Yeah right_, she snorted mentally. _Like_ that _would ever happen_! She would never admit it to her sister, but she had actually tried imagining how her name would sound if she did by some misfortunate even marry the Malfoy brat: _Diana Lillian Malfoy! Diana Malfoy. Lillian Malfoy?_ She still didn't like it.

Diana decided that she'd wasted enough time when she heard her mother shouting from downstairs to hurry up.

"Coming!" she said and placed the parchment on her desk. She took another moment considering whether she should wear the necklace and decided it couldn't hurt if she did, so she placed it on before exiting the room.

------

Heidi and Petunia were finishing up the preparations for dinner when her mother noticed she wasn't wearing her tiara (much to her dislike, since she hadn't wore it on purpose), and scurried her up the stairs to get it before the Moirés could make their appearance.

She hurried off to her room, trying to make as little noise as possible and failing miserably, and closed the door with a bang, looking wildly around the room for her stupid tiara, when she suddenly had to clap her hands over her mouth to keep from screaming.

There was something on her bed. A small creature with bat like ears and bulging green eyes the size of tennis balls.

For about half a minute or so no one moved. Then the creature suddenly jumped of the bed and bowed so low that the end of its nose touched the wooden floor.

"Hi," Heidi said in lack of better words.

"Missis Potter," squeaked the creature in a high pitched voice. "So long has Dobby wanted to meet you, miss… Such an honor it is…"

"Th-thank you," Heidi could judge by the looks of his robes (rags more like) that he was a house-elf, or at lest a servant of some sorts. "Who are you?"

"Dobby, miss. Just Dobby. Dobby the house-elf," said the creature.

"Mm Hmm," Heidi nodded looking slightly confused. "And what business does a house-elf have in my home?"

"Dobby has come to tell you, miss… it is difficult, miss… Dobby wonders where to begin…" the house-elf stuttered to find the right words.

"The beginning would be a good place to start," suggested Heidi. "Here, why don't you sit down," she motioned towards the bed, but to her horror the house elf burst into uncontrollable tears. "Are you okay?" Heidi asked concerned, which drew another loud sob from the creature. "Please stop that!" she tried shushing the elf. "What's wrong? Did I offend you with something?" she asked slightly distressed.

"Offend Dobby!" choked the elf. "Dobby has never been asked to sit down by a wizard — like an equal —"

"Oh," she said now remembering the paragraph she had read about the house-elves enslavement. "I suppose you wouldn't have. But why don't you stop worrying about that and tell me why you're here?" Heidi asked sweetly, smiling kindly at the flustered creature.

The elf sniffed a couple more time before falling silent. He turned his large eyes towards Heidi and said: "Dobby has come to warn you miss, that… _the Potter twins must not go back to Hogwarts this year_."

"Excuse me?" Heidi asked thinking she had misheard.

"The Potter twins must not go back to Hogwarts this year," Dobby repeated.

"And why, if I may ask, are we not to go back to Hogwarts?" asked Heidi in an amused voice.

"There is a plot, Missis Potter. A plot to make most terrible things happen at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry this year," whispered Dobby, suddenly trembling all over. "Dobby has known it for months, miss. The Potter twins must not put themselves in peril. They are too important, miss!"

"A plot to make bad things happen at Hogwarts?" asked Heidi suspicious. Dobby nodded vigorously. "And why did you not go directly to the Headmaster instead of coming here?"

"Because, because the mistresses are too important to be put in such danger. They must be saved, indifferent of the cost!"

"You know what Dobby, just stop and listen to me for a moment," Heidi sank to her knees and looked into the elf's large and fearful eyes. "One, there is no way you will convince me or my sister to drop out of Hogwarts!"

"But-" the elf tried to said but Heidi swiftly cut him off.

"It's rude to interrupt!" the elf looked horror struck at her and seamed ready to bang his head on the desk in front of him, but Heidi held out her hand. "And it's rude to misbehave! I would like you to sit there quietly and listen to me while I talk!" the elf nodded his head.

"Good! Now, number one - we are going back to Hogwarts!" she said sternly and gave the elf a pointed glare when he looked like he was going to interrupt. "Number two - if you know terrible things are going to happen at Hogwarts then all you have to do is go to the Headmaster and he will gladly listen to you, I'm sure of that. Number three - if all you came here for was to deliver a message then I would like to thank you, and assure you we'll be very careful this year to avoid getting into any trouble."

"But miss-"

"No buts Dobby! You delivered your message, and I most certainly am grateful for your help, but I think you've disobeyed your masters enough for one day!" she said sternly and watched how tears started to form in the elf's eyes. Truth be told, Diana would kill her if she knew how rude she had been towards a poor animal, but there was no way around it, seeing as house elves had quite an unusual magic to themselves and could be rather troublesome to deal with without a wand. _Wait a second, unusual magic? _

"Dobby, were you the one who intercepted my mail?" she asked slightly putout by the thought.

Dobby started squirming uncontrollably under Heidi's hard gaze. "Dobby is sorry miss," the elf said while pulling out a stack of envelopes from his pocket. "I is thinking that if missies would not receive any mail from friends they is not wanting to go back to Hogwarts this year."

Heidi looked ready to kill someone, or better said _something_. "You will hand those over right now Dobby!" she said holding out her hand. The elf flinched at the angry tone from the girl in front and tried to explain.

"Missis Potter mustn't be angry… Dobby hoped… that Misses Potter would have reconsidered returning to Hogwarts and would have remained home where they are safe–"

"Dobby," Heidi hissed in barely contained anger. "You better hand me those letters right now!"

"Missis Potter will have them, miss, if she gives Dobby her word that she and her sister will not return to Hogwarts. Ah, miss, this is a danger you must not face! Say you won't go back, miss!"

"No!" Heidi said and made to grab the elf.

"Then Miss Potter leaves Dobby no other choice!" said the elf and before Heidi knew what was happening Dobby darted towards the bedroom door, pulled it open and ran down the stairs.

Heidi wasted no time in chasing after the elf but it turned out she shouldn't have worried as a cold, detached voice shouted "DOBBY!" and the house-elf stopped dead in his tracks and turned his fearful eyes towards the sound of the voice. Heidi followed his gaze and saw to her wonder her father and Dudley standing in the hallway, probably there to welcome the three other occupants in the hall.

One was a very beautiful blond woman, with narrowed blue eyes and pail skin; the other was a man who looked to be in his thirties with blond-platinum hair, a rather pointed face and chilling gray eyes; while the last one was…

"Draco Malfoy?!" asked Heidi slightly confused. "What are you doing here?"

"Is that a way to great your guest?" Draco asked in a slight chuckling tone as he made his way towards her. Dobby was standing petrified at her side, head bowed to the ground.

"Oh! Of course. Where are my manors?" Heidi gave a slight bow and held out her hand which the blond took and kissed the tip of her fingers.

"You look splendid tonight," Draco commented. He turned to shoot Dobby a contemptuous look and asked. "What are you doing here?" The elf whimpered softly and tried to choke out a reply but Heidi beat him to it.

"Ah, so this is your elf! I am mostly grateful for the assistance," Heidi smiled brightly while Draco gave her a puzzled look. "Dobby here told me that his master had sent him to help me recover my mail, but he wouldn't give me a name. He has been very helpful and for that I express my sincere gratitude. Thank you!"

"You're welcome," Draco nodded curtly. "Well done Dobby," he complimented clearly reluctant, "now give those here." Dobby gave him the letter without another word and disappeared on the spot. "Here you are," Draco handed the envelops to Heidi, who flashed a brilliant smile in the blonds direction.

"Thank you! So, is your name really Moiré?" Heidi asked.

"No, no, we use that name for Muggle affairs only because Malfoy is, well, a bit unusual," Draco answered in a smooth voice.

"Oh, but please, do not linger in the doorframe! Come in," Heidi said taking control of the situation, because her father seemed rather taken aback by the whole ordeal.

"Come this way please," Heidi took Draco's offered hand and guided the three Malfoy into the living room where Petunia and Diana were waiting; Dudley and Vernon trailed uncertainly behind them.

"Good evening –" Diana stopped dead in her tracks when she saw who the guy that her sister had brought in was. "Draco!?"

"I did say _see you soon_, remember?" asked the blond with a smirk plastered on his pointed face.

"I didn't expect it to be this soon," Diana said snapping out of her daze. "Anyway, welcome to our home, mister…" Vernon tried to introduce the guests, but he found out that he couldn't even remember their family name so the blond man took over for him.

"Lucius Malfoy," Draco's father said. "And this is my wife Narcissa, and my son Draco."

"It's a real pleasure," Heidi nodded and waited for her father to introduce them, but sighed when he didn't move. "Heidi Dursley; commonly known as Potter in the wizarding world."

"Diana Dursley-Potter," Diana introduced bowing slightly. "This is my mother Petunia Dursley. I trust you already know my father, Vernon and our brother Dudley Dursley."

"Please have a seat," Heidi encouraged motioning towards the couch. "Would you like anything to drink?"

"Lemonade," answered Narcissa; Draco and Lucius shock their head.

"I'll be right back!" Heidi left and returned promptly with a glass of lemonade which she handed to Narcissa.

Much to her dismay, Vernon didn't look like he was going to get out of his trance any time soon; Petunia was desperately trying to start a conversation with Missis Malfoy, but Diana was doing a better job then her by far since she started discussing fashion with the blond; Dudley was trying his best not to glare at Draco, while the blond was having a hushed conversations with his father, who looked nothing next to pleased by the atmosphere (or the house maybe), and she couldn't actually blame him, the tension in the air was palpable.

Diner that night was an awkward event. Though Diana had managed to distract Missis Malfoy for the night, and Heidi managed to start up a political conversation with the two Malfoy men, the rest of the family was mostly just standing there like they were part of the background.

Only when Heidi held her father back after diner (and reminded him that he would lose money if he didn't snap out of his trance), did he react and immediately engaged Malfoy Sr. in a heated debate about drills. After Heidi gave Diana a pointed look and motioned to her mother the girl discretely tried to stir the conversation with Missis Malfoy towards a subject more acceptable for Petunia and managed to integrate her in the discussion after five minutes or so. Heidi also reminded Dudley that he'd be 50 bucks poorer if he didn't join in the conversation, and soon the three kids found themselves leading Draco up the stairs and towards Dudley's room to show him the computer.

"You're actually expecting me to believe that this…_box_ is going to show me anything interesting?" Draco asked skeptically.

"Why of course it will," assured Diana grinning broadly as she pushed the on button.

"We have all sorts of games you could play and music you could listen to," Dudley said cheerfully, glad to be in his own territory again. Truth be told, the talk with the Malfoy brat had unnerved him thus far. No matter how much his sisters might have told him about the magical world, it was nothing compared to what the blond knew and sometimes Dudley had the slight impression that Draco was mocking him; but now it was his turn!

"See here! _This_ is called Winamp!" He clicked on an icon in shape of a lightning bolt and then on a song at random.

To say that Draco was amazed by the "_electronic box_" was an understatement, by the end of their visit, he was asking his father to buy one for him, while Lucius looked disapprovingly at his son as he shock hands with Vernon. Luckily Narcissa was there to pacify Draco.

"So when should we be expecting your visit Mister Malfoy?" asked Vernon politely.

"I believe next week I have a free day. I will come by your office to seal the deal," Lucius answered. "It was a pleasure meeting you and your family."

"It was a pleasure meeting you too mister Malfoy," Vernon guided them out and after the Malfoys were gone, he gave a loud cheer. "We did it!"

"Majorca here we come!" cheered Dudley.

-----

It was the best birthday ever!

A whole week spent in Majorca with absolutely no worry on their mind but how to schedule their day and see everything in one go. The girls were extremely pleased because they finally received the letters that their friends had sent them and spent most of the remaining holidays writing to their friends like any normal person would.

A week before term started the girls received their letters from Hogwarts, which told them to catch the train on September the first and the new list of books.

_SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS WILL REQUIRE:_

_The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2by Miranda Goshawk_

_Break with a Banshee by Gilderoy Lockhart_

_Gadding with Ghouls by Gilderoy Lockhart_

_Holidays with Hags by Gilderoy Lockhart_

_43 Travels with Trolls by Gilderoy Lockhart_

_Voyages with Vampires by Gilderoy Lockhart_

_Wanderings with Werewolves by Gilderoy Lockhart_

_Year with the Yeti by Gilderoy Lockhart_

"Who the hell is this Gilderoy Lockhart guy?" asked Diana in wonder; after all, there were a whole bunch of books that they had to buy from him.

"Never heard of him," answered Heidi.

-----

"We're going to Diagon Alley tomorrow!" Diana announced after she got of the phone with Hermione. "Mione, Lavy and Paty will be there too!"

"What about the Malfoy brat?" asked Dudley moodily. He was still fairly convinced that his sister was dating the blond.

"I told him we'll be going in three days," said Diana cheerfully. "This is a girls' night out! No boys allowed!"

Dudley nodded approvingly while Vernon looked horror-struck at her.

"Pumpkin," Vernon started. "It would help daddy a lot if our families stayed in some sort of amiable relationship, and if the boy is looking forward to go shopping with us, I don't see the wrong in that."

"He's gonna insult Hermione," Heidi pointed out.

"Well, _Hermione_ is not the one with whom daddy has a major contract with now is she?" Vernon asked slightly annoyed. "Pumpkin, that week in Majorca was possible because of mister Malfoy's investment!"

"We could have gone there on our own account if you would just accept the Potter wealth!" snapped Diana. That was another discussion among their family that the Dursleys preferred to avoid.

Ever since the girls had shown them the Potter vault their parents had been terrified (for some reason), and instead of accepting it (like any normal person would), they had stubbornly refused to touch it and had prohibited the girls from using it for their benefit. Vernon had sworn to himself (or so it seemed), that he would not have his family rely on someone else for funding, and was working almost nonstop to try and buy them anything they wanted.

The twins however had drawn the line when Vernon had offered to pay for their school and supplies saying that they would not stand for it and if he even dared try, they'd leave home for the rest of the holidays. Vernon had relinquish in the end and accepted that anything from the magical world was not his problem, something which suited the girls just fine.

However, it was times like these when the money in the Potter vault actually became a pest for the girls. For one, they loved Hermione (like a sister), more then the Malfoy prat and his money; so Diana clearly stated that if the Malfoy _little monster_ dared say one offending word to Hermione she would hex him even if it meant getting expelled from school. The comment seemed to please Dudley a lot, because it sounded like Diana didn't like the blond bastard (how wrong he was).

------

So here they were, in Diagon Alley. The five Gryffindor girls plus Neville with their parents and the one Slytherin boy with his parents that decided to accompany him. It was awkward, for one because they were such a large group; two because they were Gryffindors mixed with Slytherins, which was a one way ticket to a very bad ending. Oh, yeah, did I forget to mention the Muggles?

Draco suggested that the parents go get the books while the kids went to buy ice-cream.

Most of the parents agreed, because apparently Lockhart was signing autographs in Flourish and Blotts, something that irritated Heidi and Hermione quite a lot.

"Come on sissy, you're the only one who is sad that the library is off boundaries, so why don't you give it up and relax!"

"So I don't count them?" asked Hermione slightly offended.

"Of course you-" Draco began.

"DO!" Diana finished and grabbed him roughly by the hand. "But you don't seem so upset."

"Well I am!" said Hermione. "So, where are we going?"

"I wanted to go and see some plant display with my granny in Natural Variations," Neville said.

"Plants? That sounds-" Draco tried but Diana butted in again.

"Wonderful! Lead the way Neville!" She prompted.

"Wait! I want to look at some new robs in Madam Malkin's, I outgrew my uniform," Parvati whined.

"I'll accompany you!" Draco jumped at the opportunity.

"Hermione and I will go with Neville at the plant display," Heidi said. "And then we'll go and visit the book shop!"

"Perfect!" Hermione agreed. Dudley decided to go with them saying that he wouldn't be caught dead with a girl in a clothe shop.

So the group split up; Diana, Draco, Parvati and Lavender went towards Madam Malkin's Robes for all occasions, while Dudley, Hermione, Neville and Heidi went to see the plant display.

After Hermione was out of the way, Draco wasn't much of a problem, though he was definitely not pleased to sit in a clothing shop and wait for Parvati to finish.

"You know, this is where we first met," Diana whispered softly in his ear.

The slightest trace of a smile made its way on Draco's handsome face and his eyes became distant, as he fondly recalled the memory. "You know, that is the only shopping trip I _ever_ enjoyed."

"Trying to be funny again aren't we?" asked Diana with a sly smile.

"If _funny_ and _flirty_ are synonyms for you?" Draco asked very much amused.

Diana chewed on her bottom lip while pretending to ponder over it then said in a seemingly innocent voice: "Maybe. Why, were you flirting with me?"

It was Draco's turn to play the role of the naive child. "Maybe."

Diana giggled slightly and said "Well, know that I think you are a very funny person."

Draco turned around so that he was fully facing her, a brilliant smile decorating his face. "I'm glad to know that," he said and bent slowly forward.

Diana's breath caught in her throat when she saw the blond boy coming closed. Was he going to kiss her? It certainly seemed so. But did she want him to kiss her? Did _she_ want to kiss him? Well, she was definitely not gonna lose her first kiss to a Dark Lord like her sister had. And why shouldn't she kiss him? After all, she did like him, even though he could drive her off the walls sometimes, she still liked him, right? She _did_ want to kiss him right?

Diana hadn't noticed that while she was thinking she had slowly turned her head away from Draco, only up until the blond muttered a soft "Sorry" did she snap her head back towards him.

"What?" she asked confused and turned to see that Draco had lowered his eyes to the ground looking flushed. Then the realization hit her: The boy thought she had turned him down!

_Well shit_!

"I didn't mean that!" Diana said at once, though she didn't know if the boy understood what she meant, but apparently he did because he said:

"No, I'm sorry. I was rushing things. I didn't want to discomfort you or anything-"

"No, listen I…I…" what would she say? That she wanted to kiss him? Truth be told, she wasn't sure she did, so she just turned away from the boy, very much embarrassed and hung her head in shame. The tension between the two was pretty much palpable and not a word was uttered up until the two other girls came up to them and pulled Diana aside saying something along the line of "Tell me what you think of this."

"Why the hell did you not kiss him?" asked Parvati the moment they were out of Draco's hearing line.

"You saw that?!" Diana asked horrified.

"Damn right we did!" said Lavender. "And we do not approve of your behavior!"

"I was thinking whether I wanted to kiss him or not and when I snapped back to reality he turned away!" Diana said in her defense.

"Oh, please! You don't think before kissing someone! You just do it!" said Parvati irked.

"And you just lost one hell of a man there girly! Look at him good, because I doubt he's gonna want to court you anymore after this disaster." Lavender assured.

A mortified expression made its way on Diana's pretty face as she asked the girls in a choked whisper: "What am I going to do?!"

"There, there honey," Madam Malkins came up to her. "Don't listen to these two! If the boy likes you he'll understand that you're too young for this sort of things!"

"Really?" asked Diana, a desperate tone clouding her voice.

"Yeah, right!" huffed Parvati.

"I don't think so!" scowled Lavender.

"Oh, and I suppose you have more experience about relationships then a thirty-seven year old lady, who is happily married!" snapped the elder witch. "Have you ever been in a relationship before?"

"Well no, but-"

"Well for your information I have!" said Madam Malkin. "5 to be precise! And none of the boys left me because I didn't want to kiss them on the first date!"

"So, you don't think he's gonna leave me?" asked Diana hopefully.

"I'm sure he won't!" assured the shop owner with a grin. Diana smiled gratefully at her with tears threatening to burst out of her eyes and threw her arms around the shop keeper.

"Thank you!" the red haired whispered softly.

"You're very much welcomed," Madam Malkin said and patted her reassuringly on the head.

"So, girls, will that be all?" she questioned Parvati and Lavender who were sitting awkwardly at their side.

"Yes," Parvati gave a slight nod.

"Then come this way please so I can pack up your things," Madam Malkin slowly disentangled herself from Diana's embrace and guided Parvati and Lavender toward the stool.

"You okay?" Diana jumped and spun around to come face to face with Draco's concerned look.

"Yes!" she answered automatically.

"Look, Diana," Draco began while looking very uncomfortable. "I didn't mean to scare you or make you think I'm forcing you into something-"

"No, not at all. I… just…have… never been kissed before so, it was kind of…" She tried to assure the boy that he hadn't scared her or anything, but the words came out muffled and not a little awkward.

"Oh… well, I've only been kissed once, so…" Draco said thinking that she was discouraged by her lack of experience in the matter, but soon found out that was the wrong thing to say when Diana averted her eyes and said "Oh…"

"What I mean is…Iwantyoutobemygirlfriend!" he blurred out, though even to him that didn't actually sound like anything recognizable.

"What?" Diana asked looking quizzically at him.

"I said that…I want you…to be my…girlfriend, you know, if, if you want to?" Draco asked keeping his gaze glued to his shoes. He didn't want to see Diana's expression, especially not if she rejected him for that stupid slip earlier. Dang! He couldn't believe he had thrown caution to the wind like that and jumped in the fire, just like a bloody Gryffindor! Where the hell was his smooth talk when he needed it?!

Just when the boy was about to give up hope and apologies to Diana, the red haired swung her arms around his neck and nearly choked him to death while murmuring a soft "Yes" in his shoulder.

It took a few seconds before Draco's brain finally registered what he had just heard and then an immeasurable feeling of relief washed over him as a blissful smile made its way across his face. "Really?" he asked eagerly.

"Really!" Diana assured jumping out of his arms. "But I don't think I'm ready for the kissing stuff," she said apologetically.

"Ok, ok, no worry there," Draco energetically assured. Then they were stuck grinning dumbly at each other, unknowing what to do next.

"So…how does this work?" Diana asked, looking expectantly at the blond. Draco looked back, a puzzled expression on his face.

"I'm not really sure," he looked regretfully at the red head.

"How bout we talk first," Diana suggested.

"Yeah, that would be a good start," Draco nodded fervently. "Hold hands?"

"Definitely! Especially in front of Dudley!" Diana smiled wickedly. "You're not afraid of him are you?"

"Why would I be afraid of him?" asked Draco puzzled.

"Because he's a bully, and a good one at it," Diana said. "Oh, Paty, Lavy! Wait here I'll be right back!" Diana rushed up towards her two friends to give them the good news while Draco thought about whether he should watch out for Dudley or not. Well, they _did _have a business going on with his father, it couldn't be_ that_ bad. Could it?

--------

"You're dating the blond aren't you?!" Dudley accused the moment they entered the house. He had restrained himself enough during the rest of the visit through the alley, though his sister had been very careful to hold hands and stick as closely as she could to the Malfoy brat, despite Dudley's obvious glares and occasional coughs or growls.

"Why yes," Diana answered merrily. "Isn't he cute?" She cupped her face in her hands and giggled delightedly, a dreamy sort of expression making its way across her face.

"You're WHAT!?" shrieked Vernon cutting short Diana's happy moment.

"Well, dad, you did say that we should have an amiable relationship with-"

"An amiable relationship and _dating_ the brat are _not_ the same thing!" Vernon stated sternly. "If I had known this was gonna happen, I wouldn't have made you call the boy!"

"Too late to start whining about it now," Diana said dismissively. "And besides, I thought you would be happy for me!"

"Pumpkin, we are happy," assured Petunia. "But that boy, he… doesn't look to be your type."

"Actually he is." declared Heidi. "She likes cute, rich, blond boys; I think Malfoy is all of the above. That doesn't mean I approve of you dating that prick!"

Diana sent an angry glare at her sister and the rest of her family.

"Well too bad for you!" she shouted and ran up the stairs to her room.

"Perfect, just bloody perfect!" grumbled Vernon furiously.

-----

**AN**: Before you jump at my throat for Diana and Draco's awkward relationship start, I will remind you that they _are _barely second years and thus, none of them should have been interested enough to have date before (or in some cases were not permitted to do so), and therefore they aren't exactly sure what it means to be in an actual relationship; because let's face it, it would have been weir and quite unrealistic for some 12 year olds to start snogging and doing stuff only 15 year olds and above do. (Don't worry, I'm not waiting till she's 15 to have her kiss a boy).


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: The Whomping Willow **

The last week or so spent at home was not a peasant experience for the members of the Dursley family; main reason being that Vernon, Dudley and Diana were always engulfed in a glaring competition, if not a full out shouting match about the red heads' new boyfriend, to which neither males of the household approved.

Heidi didn't look bother by the fact. She told her mother that she had anticipated this a long time ago and had proceeded to explain all the awkward and amusing situations the two had undergone together throughout the last year. After the…_captivating_ story, Petunia had agreed that the two had gone through quite a lot, but didn't think they were fit to date one another. Heidi had assured her they wouldn't get pass the first week, something which soothed Petunia's worries, because if there was one thing she trusted above all else in the world was her daughter's judgment.

Dudley and Vernon tried their best to act civil in the last two days that they were spending together, but failed miserably. Dudley, having played the older brother figure for almost all his life, and thus assuming the role of the annoying brother who didn't let his sisters date, was finding it hard to accept that his duty was over so soon, and could not stand in the same room as Diana without feeling a deep sense of betrayal and scream his frustration out on the girls that made him feel like he failed at his task.

Luckily for the girls (or not), Dudley wasn't staying for the last day home, since the mother of one of his friends had offered to drive her son and Dudley up to school, because Petunia and Vernon had to take the girls to London the next day.

Dudley was ready the next morning; his bags all packed, his uniform in place, his cane underneath his left arm and his hat standing firmly on his round head, a resolute expression was carved on his face as he waited for Madam Stain to arrive.

Petunia was crying softly in her napkin on the couch, Heidi was standing right next to her, trying to shush her up while Vernon surveyed the window like a hawk. Diana slowly made her way into the room and headed for the armchair in which Dudley's stiff figure sat.

"D, are we gonna part on bad terms?" Diana asked her brother in a sad tone.

Dudley turned his impassive expression towards her and sighed when he laid eyes on her tearful face. "No, we aren't," he said looking disgruntled all of a sudden. "But you better promise me you'll be careful! Or else we will reunite on bad terms!"

"You have my word," Diana assured with a warm smile. "If Draco get's cocky, I'll dump him before you can say Chocolate!" Dudley seemed satisfied with the answer (for now at least), and rose up from his seat to hugged his sister, who eagerly returned the gesture.

One hour later, the Stain woman did show up to take Dudley and promised she'd make sure Dudley and her son, John, arrived on time. Petunia was a wrecking mess long after Dudley was out the door and Vernon looked slightly sad that night; he even forgot to reprimand Diana for her excuse of a boyfriend at diner.

-------

The first of September had finally arrived and much to the girls' displeasure, they were running late for two reasons: one being that fact that Heidi had actually trusted Diana when the red head said she was packed and ready to leave, and the other being the fact that Vernon was not to eager to get to the station, seeing as Diana had unfortunately let it slip that Malfoy would be waiting for them at the platform. The lengthy one hour ride actually took half an hour extra to make and it would have taken longer had Heidi not snapped at her father and assured she wouldn't come back next year if he continued with the child-like behavior.

At long last, the agonizing trip had ended and the girls managed to rush out of the car and bolt for the station with five minutes to spare before the train left. They kissed their parents good-bye at the entrance and ran towards the barrier knocking head first into Ron Weasley.

"Sorry, Ron!" Heidi hastily apologized and picked herself off the floor.

"Hey! Fancy seeing you here," Ron smiled at the twins. "A little late don't you think?"

"Yeah, right, like you're the one to talk!" Diana huffed and ran for the barrier at top speed, and… crashed straight into it!

"DIAND!!" Ron and Heidi were at her side within seconds.

"What happened?" Heidi asked puzzled.

"Are you alright?" Ron quizzed, concern written on his freckled face.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Diana assured.

"What in blazes d'you think you're doing?" a guard came up to them looking furious by the mess and racket they had caused.

"My sister just got out of the hospital after having her legs paralyzed for ten days, so you should understand if she's a little clumsy on her feet," Heidi lied, with an offended glare carved on her face.

"Oh, I'm sorry miss," the guard hastily apologized. "Do you need any help?"

"No thank you, everything is under control," Heidi replied tersely and turned back to Diana; the guard left a few moments after.

"You were hospitalized?" asked Ron bewildered and held out his hand for Diana.

"No, Heidi just likes lying," Diana said and took Ron's offered hand.

"Well, it would have looked dumb if I said _she lost control of the trolley_, wouldn't it?" Heidi answered in a sarcastic voice. "The barrier…" she mussed.

"Yeah, what happened to it?" asked Ron, while taking a peek around.

"It's sealed itself," Heidi answered. "We can't get through!"

"We can't get through either way, since the Muggles are still watching us," whispered Ron through gritted teeth.

Diana looked up at the gigantic clock and then looked around at the crowd that was still watching them and then realized it was because of Blanche who was shrieking madly in her cage a few strides away from them.

"Blanche, baby!" Diana ran up to her owl and tried to shush her up while Heidi and Ron tried to push through the wall with all their might, but to no avail.

A few seconds later the clock struck eleven o clocks, and a resounding ding echoed throughout the whole station, driving the assembled crowd back into motion, as everybody started running off in different directions complaining about stupid kids and their distracting tricks.

Ron, Heidi and Diana shared a panicked look.

"We missed the train…" Ron blurred out seemingly in shock.

"And the barrier still won't budge!" whined Heidi.

"My mom and dad are in there," said Ron looking desperate as he tried to push through the solid wall. "What if they can't get out?"

"What are we going to do?" asked Diana in a scared tone. "What if they'll expel us from Hogwarts!"

"Oh, of course they won't!" snapped Heidi. "Let's head back outside; maybe mom and dad haven't left for home yet!"

"Are you kidding me, I saw the car pull out of the drive-hold when I entered the station," said Diana.

"The car!" exclaimed Ron, eyes gleaming madly.

"What about it?" asked Diana baffled.

"We can fly the car to Hogwarts!" said Ron eagerly.

"What the hell are you talking about Weasley?" inquired Heidi.

"My dad, he charmed our old Ford Anglia so it could fly!" Ron told the twins.

"He what?" asked Heidi skeptically.

"Really?" asked Diana eagerly. "You own a flying car?!"

"Yes," Ron nodded vigorously. "Come with me and I'll show you!" Ron grabbed a hold of his trunk and hoisted it towards the exit. Heidi and Diana shared a puzzled look but followed him outside the station and onto the side road where an old Ford Anglia was parked.

"Can you fly it?" asked Diana excited.

"No problem," winked Ron and used his wand to unlock the cavernous trunk. The kids heaved the luggage in and the two girls climbed in the back seats with Ruby and Blanche, while Ron climbed up front and asked: "Check that no one's watching!" as he started the car.

"We're clear," said Diana.

Ron pressed a tiny silver button on the dashboard. The car around them vanished, and so did they. The girls could feel the seat vibrating beneath them, hear the engine, feel the owl cages on their knees and the soft seats on which they were standing, but for all they could see they had become a pair of eyeballs, floating a few feet above the ground in a dingy street full of parked cars.

"Let's go," came Ron's voice from somewhere up front.

And within seconds, the London streets with its spectacular buildings and crowded alleyways were left behind and the ever blue sky with a few clouds here and there surrounded them on all sides.

"Wow!" Diana whispered in amazement. Heidi's breath was caught in her throat as she gazed upon the scene before her with barely contained enthusiasm; however their thrill was short lived as the car gave a sudden roar and in the next moment they were visible again.

"Uh-oh! It's faulty," said Ron as he desperately pressed the Invisibility Booster.

"Move it Weasley or the Muggles might see us!" hissed Heidi furiously in his ear.

"Right," Ron nodded and slammed his foot on the acceleration handle. They rocketed straight into the clouds which encircled them on all sides effectively covering them from view.

"What do we do now?" asked Diana concerned.

"We need to see where the train is to know which direction to follow," said Ron.

"Dive back down again; quick!" Heidi said. Ron nodded and dove beneath the cloud. The three hastily turned their heads in all directions searching for the train.

"There!" yelled Diana. "Right up ahead!"

"Due north," said Ron, checking the compass on the dashboard. "Okay, we'll just have to check on it every half hour or so — hold on —" And they shot up through the clouds.

"All we've got to worry about now are airplanes," said Ron jovially.

"You know, I just realized," said Heidi looking slightly confused. "If we took the car, how are your parents going to get back home?"

"They don't need the car," said Ron, waving a dismissive hand. "They know how to Apparate. They only bother with Floo powder and the car because we're underage and we're not allowed to Apparate yet."

"Apparate as in that whole pop from one place to another kind of thing?" asked Diana.

"Yes," confirmed Ron. "Have you ever Apparated before?"

"Side along Apparition," Heidi said. "McGonagall Apparated us from our house to Diagon Alley."

"Really? How was that like?" Ron asked in amazement.

"Disgusting," Diana said appalled. "I vomited the first time."

"Oh…"

"I'm sending Ruby down to Hermione so she knows what's happened to us," Heidi said as she pulled out a piece of parchment from her pocket and scribbled a quick note. "Come here you," she reached in the cage to pull out Ruby but Diana stopped her.

"Shouldn't you use Blanche instead?" asked Diana looking doubtfully at the tiny, energetic owl that was banging its head on the cage bars.

"Ruby is perfectly capable of delivering a message!" Heidi snapped. "Besides, the train is just below us!"

"If your owl get's killed by the current, don't blame it on me," Diana said and folded her hands stubbornly.

"She'll be fine!" Heidi assured and pulled out the tiny little bugger. "Ruby baby; down there in that train is Hermione, you remember her, right? Take this note to her." She tied the note to the bouncy owl's leg and the next time Ron dove below the clouds Heidi released the tiny thing, but soon wished she didn't as the owl was whooshed away by the current and sent spinning backwards like a baseball.

The tiny creature came to a stop in mid-air, looking dizzily around, then sprinted after the Hogwarts express and entered the train through an open window. It searched through the compartment for its designated pray, hitting a good number of doors and window-frames along the way, up until it finally found her.

--------

Hermione Granger was engulfed in a heated debate with Neville Longbottom regarding a plant that they had stumbled across at the Nature's Variation, exhibition.

"Seriously Neville! There is nothing written in the text book about Violes being poisonous!" Hermione argued.

"And I'm telling you they are! I have about two of them in my greenhouse, and I always keep them in a magical net so that no one can touch them, ever since my dog Bony died!" Neville countered, getting slightly desperate; there was just no convincing the girl of something if you didn't shove a text book in her hand that had the information written in black and white. "And besides, we won't learn at Hogwarts about them! They're barely used in Potions and the likes."

"But, I'm sure I read about them somewhere!" protested Hermione.

"I can assure you it wasn't in any school book," Neville said slightly impatient. "Tell you what, why don't you and the twins come and visit me next summer; I'll show you the plant then!" Neville suggested to which Hermione nodded eagerly.

"That sounds like a splendid idea Neville! Now that you mention it, where are the twins?" Hermione asked while looking around as if hoping the two would pop out of thin air.

"No idea," said Neville. "We waited for them on the platform but they never showed, so you said we should head inside and wait for them on the train, remember?"

"Don't you think it's kind of odd that they didn't show up?" asked Neville. "I mean, we did agree to search for each other on the train, didn't we?"

"You're right," nodded Hermione. "Maybe we should go look for them."

Neville nodded and rose from his seat. "I'll go, you wait here incase they turn up." He wasn't half way towards the door when Draco Malfoy pulled it open and stepped in, Crabbe and Goyle tailing behind him.

"Where is Diana?" the blond asked upon entering.

"We don't know," Hermione answered. "Neville was just about to go looking for her."

"I've searched this whole bloody train," said the blond, in an annoyed tone. "I've even asked those annoying two colleagues of yours if they knew anything, but to no avail!"

"But that can't be right!" muttered Hermione. "They have to be _somewhere_ on this train! Right?"

"I just told you-" Draco began to say, but his speech was cut short as a tiny little owl collided with his back, staggered slightly and then rushed straight into Hermione's outstretched hands.

"Ruby! What happened to you?" Hermione asked looking at the tiny bugger in concern.

"Is that Heidi's owl?" asked Neville.

"Yeah," said Hermione. The tiny owl hopped in front of her to grab her attention and stuck out its leg. "You have a message? From Heidi?" the bushy haired girl took the parchment from the tiny owl's leg and unfolded it.

"What does it say?" asked Draco impatiently as he watched Hermione's eyes widen significantly.

"The barrier wouldn't let them through! They said they'll see us at Hogwarts."

"What do you mean: _the barrier wouldn't let them through_?" Draco asked skeptically.

"It says so right here!" Hermione said and handed him the letter.

Draco took the piece of parchment and read it in a haste. "Bloody hell!" he mumbled and stalked out of the compartment without another word.

Hermione and Neville turned to look quizzically at each other.

"How do they manage to get in so much trouble," Hermione asked and sat down with a sigh.

"I have no idea." Neville replied. "But how do you think they'll get to Hogwarts?"

Hermione shrugged and turned her head towards the wrecked looking owl in her lap. "Thank you," she whispered. "It was very brave of you to come all the way down here and deliver the message." the tiny bugger hooted in content and snuggled close to Hermione before going to sleep.

--------

A good four hours passed by in which the twins and Ron chatted merrily about anything that came to mind; Ron for one was interested to know everything about the two girls in the back seat and kept popping out questions that rang from, "what's your favorite color?" to "how was your summer?", the girls answered every one of them, just to keep the boredom from settling in and quizzed Ron about his own family in return, a subject that he didn't look to kin on breaching, but did so reluctantly after some coaching on Heidi's part.

Heidi concluded that Ron had a huge inferiority complex and was somewhat ashamed of his family for being poor, while Diana got quite bored of the everyday questions and started grilling the boy about more intimate matters, like: "what type of girls do you like?", "do you have a girlfriend?", "have you ever been kissed?" and the like, until the poor boy was redder then the setting sun.

"Can't be much further, can it?" choked Ron, eager to get the humiliating questions over and done with. "Let's check on the train again!"

Ron lowered the car from among the masses of clouds into the blinding darkness that had fallen below and narrowed his eyes to see the red train still gliding underneath them. Satisfied with the notion that he was on the right track, he slammed his foot on the acceleration and stirred the car upwards, but as he did so, the engine began to whine.

The twins and Ron exchanged nervous looks.

"It's probably just tired," said Ron. "It's never been this far before…"

The girls nodded and the three pretended not to notice the whining increase in volume as the sky grew steadily darker.

"Not far," said Ron, more to the car than to the twins, "not far now," and he patted the dashboard nervously.

The next time Ron lowered the car, a cheer of joy escaped the group as they stumbled across Hogwarts castle standing tall on the horizon; its massive form coming as a welcomed sight for the passengers of the car, which were slowly beginning to think they would not finish the journey in one piece, as the car started shuddering and loosing speed.

"Come on," Ron said cajolingly, giving the steering wheel a little shake, "nearly there, come on -"

The engine groaned. Narrow jets of steam were issuing from under the hood. Diana found herself gripping the edges of her seat very hard as they flew toward the lake. Heidi however had pulled out her wand and was pointing it at the dashboard.

"What are you doing?" asked Ron in a panicked voice.

"This wand charges me up with energy everyday, if I can just get it to do the same with the car!" Heidi pressed her wand on the dashboard and willed the wand to charge up the car. She had no idea if it would work, but, hey, it was worth a try.

A slight silver essence flooded out of the tip of Heidi's wand and sank down into the car, much to the kids' surprise. The car suddenly stopped staggering and straightened up. Ron and Diana looked ready to cry out in relief, but Heidi glared angrily at them and growled "Move it!" through gritted teeth.

"Sorry," Ron muttered and took control of the steering wheel. He slowly guided the car down while looking around for a safe place to parch, up until he found one near a thick tree.

"Hold on," he said as he steered the car towards the place. They landed neatly next to the massive old tree and all the kids released a breath of relief as the car's engine came to a halt.

"Well, that was easy," Ron said cheerfully. The words were barely out of his mouth as something hit Diana's side of the car and sent her flying into her sister, just as another blow slammed viciously into the roof.

"What's happen —?" Ron tried to ask but another vicious slam knocked into the car's roof repeatedly.

The kids lifted their heads to look as a branch larger then a piton rose up into the air and smashed down on the car's front with a deafening CRACK, causing black smoke to rise from the shattered front; it seemed that the tree was attacking them. Blanche was shrieking furiously as another thick branch came crashing down on them.

"Run for it!" Ron shouted and tried to open the door, but unfortunately for him, a branch chose that precise moment to knock into his door and knocked him towards the passengers' seat in the process.

"We're done for!" he moaned as the ceiling sank. Heidi sent him a pointed glare and managed to squeeze her way up in front where she pressed her wand on the now wretched board and thought _I want you to head back! Away from here_!

The engine gave a sudden roar as it ignited and the car shot backwards at neck-break speed. The kids were propelled towards the front thanks to the abrupt movement and Heidi ended up banging her head against the windshield while Diana was pushed on top of Ron, who knocked head-on in the front board.

"That," panted Ron, "was close. Well done, car —"

The car however, had reached the end of its tether. With two sharp clunks, the doors flew open and Diana felt her seat tip sideways; next thing she knew she was sprawled on the damp ground. Loud thuds told her that the car was ejecting their luggage from the trunk; Blanche's cage flew through the air and burst open; she rose out of it with an angry screech and sped off toward the castle without a backward look. Then, dented, scratched, and steaming, the car rumbled off into the darkness, its rear lights blazing angrily.

"Come back!" Ron yelled after it. "Dad'll kill me!"

But the car disappeared from view with one last snort from its wrecked engine.

"Heidi!" Diana's voice drew Ron's attention from the retreating vehicle.

"What happened?" Ron asked nervously.

"She's bleeding!" Diana said in a terrified voice.

The tree gave a threatening crack as it continued to flay its branches at them, unfortunately drawing the red haired girl's attention onto it.

"YOU!" Diana growled in little suppressed anger. "You'll pay for this!" she said and lung at the tree with the soul intention of tearing it apart from head to toe. Ron however tackled her to the ground before she could get too far.

"We have to take your sister to madam Pomfrey!" the boy yelled in her ear. "Then we can come back for it!" he assure. Diana shot another menacing look the tree's way and then picked herself of the ground, nodding curtly.

"I'll be back for you!" she promised and moved towards her sister.

Ron lifted Heidi up in his arms and Diana proceeded to levitate the luggage and so, together, they made their way up towards the castle.

The walk to the castle wasn't as easy as the kids thought it would be. The cold, chilly air, whipped at their faces, as the damp grass filled their shoes with fresh dirt, making it harder to walk, and despite their luck of landing on Hogwarts grounds, there was quite a while before they managed to reach the entrance doors.

As they entered the castle, they came across a face that neither one of the kids was to kin on seeing so soon in the year, Professor Severus Snape.

Snape was the Potions master, the most hated teacher around school, and for good reasons. The Gryffindors hated him because he was quite unfair towards them in class, and always favored the Slytherins; Diana, on the other hand, hated him for teaching the dreaded subject in which they had to chop, slice and stew poor animals to make disgusting potions that most of the times seemed to just make you even sicker with their foul taste.

Snape took one look at them and lifted Heidi from Ron's arms, while telling Diana to leave the luggage, then ordered them to follow him. The two did so with barely contained repugnance for the teacher in front. Snape led them up towards the hospital wing where he left Heidi, Diana and Ron in Madam Pomfrey's able hands.

Diana didn't actually realize when Snape left, her soul worry at the time being her pale looking sister who was still bleeding as Madam Pomfrey sat her in one of the hospital beds.

"Take a seat dears, you look like you could use some patching up yourselves," the Medi-witch said kindly and started fussing over Heidi.

"Do you believe it?" Ron asked bewildered. "Snape caught us in the act and didn't slice up or heads for it?!"

"Ha?" Diana asked confused and looked around to notice that Snape had vanished while she wasn't paying attention. "Yeah, that's something all right."

Madam Pomfrey finished patching up the twins and was half way into finishing Ron, when Professor McGonagall entered the room looking like the sky had fallen on her head; Snape was no where in sight.

"Severus has so _gallantly_ informed me of your _flamboyant _arrival, earlier tonight," she said in barely restrained anger and tossed the _Evening Prophet_ at them. "Care to explain!" it wasn't a request.

Ron launched into the story, starting with the barrier at the station refusing to let them through.

"— so we had no choice, Professor, we couldn't get on the train."

"Why didn't you send us a letter by owl? I believe _you_ both have owls?" Professor McGonagall said coldly to Diana and pointed at her sister as well.

Diana stared at her, a guilty expression clouding her pretty face.

"Am," she swallowed hard trying to clear the lump that was slowly taking shape in her throat. "I didn't…_think _about it?" she answered uncertainly.

"That," said Professor McGonagall, "is obvious. But Heidi! I would have expected better from her!"

The ember eyes girl gave a sudden groan and slowly opened her eyes, looking around confused. "Where am I?" she asked baffled.

"You are in the hospital wing my dear," Madam Pomfrey scurried to her side. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I just knocked my head against the wall," the girl answered snaking her head slightly.

There was a knock at the door and a few moments later, in stepped Albus Dumbledore, the Headmaster of Hogwarts, looking more grim then Diana had ever seen him.

There was a long silence, interrupted only by Heidi's moans of discomfort as madam Pomfrey fussed over her cracked scull, before she nodded her head, satisfied with the girl's condition.

"You have a concussion Missis Potter, and I would recommend that you lay off anything stressful for the next couple of days and you should be just fine. I'll give you half-an-hour to sort things out Headmaster, and then I want that girl in bed," said Madam Pomfrey and retreated into her living quarter.

Dumbledore nodded slightly then turned to the kids and said, "Please explain why you did this."

Diana was flushed with embarrassment at hearing the disappointment in his voice, while Heidi, short tempered as she was, snapped at the occupants in the room.

"It's not our bloody fault that whoever made those stupid wards that led to the platform didn't do his job right! And I sure as HELL don't want to hear you complain about me not trying to send you letters, when I've been trying to do just that for the past couple of weeks!"

Both the Headmaster and McGonagall looked in shock at her.

"You've been trying to contact me, Missis Potter?" asked Dumbledore surprised.

"Damn well I have! FIVE letters, sent specifically to you and three to her-" she pointed at Minerva "-and not a single reply! You'll bloody well have to excuse me for not trusting the owl service much with solving the problem at hand!" she glared defiantly up at the two Professors, as if daring them to speak, but a sharp pain erupted in her head and the girl covering her bandage with her arms as a loud moan of pain tore out of her throat.

Diana was at her side immediately and Madam Pomfrey stormed into the room, carrying a bottle of potion in her hands, while looking disapprovingly at the two teachers.

"Missis Potter! I told you not to exert yourself, didn't I!" the nurse snapped. "Here, drink this!" she brought the bottle to the girl's mouth and prompted her to drink it.

"Heidi," Dumbledore's soft, grandfatherly voice brought the girls' attention upon him. "Why did you try to contact me during the summer holidays?" the elder wizard asked kindly.

"Because someone was blocking our mail," Diana answered. "The only reason we knew that was because we called Hermione a couple of times and she told us she'd sent us a bunch of letters, and that no reply came back, though we tried to owl her too."

"Then I decided to send a message to Hogwarts and see if that would do any good," continued Heidi. "It obviously didn't!" she shot her sister a concerned glance before turning to look Dumbledore straight in the eye and said: "And then, Dobby the house-elf came to our house and said that he was the one doing all that as some lame attempt at protecting us, because _apparently_, terrible things are supposed to be happening at Hogwarts this year, and he didn't want us to return." Diana had a god-smacked expression on her face as she listened to her sister talk, while Dumbledore's eyes clouded with a slight trace of concern.

"He didn't tell me _what exactly_ was the terrible thing that would happen, but he did say that he had known about it for weeks and that it didn't have anything to do with Voldemort. And I'm willing to bet he was the one who closed off the barrier at Kings Cross to keep us from catching the train."

Silence followed the girl's statement as everybody in the room was lost it their own thought.

"Why didn't you tell me anything about this?" asked Diana, betrayal ringing clearly in her voice.

Heidi sighed and turned to give her sister a hard glare. "It's animals we're talking about! You would have defended that elf with your life; maybe even listened to it!"

"No I wouldn't!" Diana protested, but Heidi didn't look convinced.

"Heidi, Diana, I believe we can continue this discussion amiably, there is no point in arguing," Dumbledore said patiently. The twins glared for another moment at one another, then turned to look expectantly at Dumbledore.

"Heidi, do you happen to know to which family the house-elf belongs to?" Dumbledore asked.

Heidi started chewing her bottom lip as she shot another concerned glance in Diana's direction, then decided that she'd rather die then tell her sister the truth (not while she was dating Malfoy at least), so she turned back to Dumbledore and bore her eyes into the elder wizard's twinkling bleu, constantly repeating the word _Malfoy_, and hoping that by some miracle the older wizard would understand, as her lips moved to mount the word: "No."

Dumbledore nodded, his expression blank, but for some reason, Heidi could feel that he had somehow received her message.

"Very well, miss Potter. I shall leave you to rest." The Headmaster rose from his seat and motioned for Minerva to follow him. "Com my dear Professor, I believe the children are entitled to a few moments of respite after the trilling adventures of tonight."

"You aren't gonna punish us?" asked Ron befuddled.

"No mister Weasley," answered Dumbledore. "I believe that given the situation in which you were placed, it would be wrong of me to punish you; though you could have waited for your parents and discuss this out with them; but I trust you will be more precautious next time." With that said, Dumbledore left, McGonagall trailing slightly behind him.

"Can you believe that?" asked Ron gleefully. "We got off with no punishment!"

"Of course we did," Heidi smirked imperiously. "I've gotten out of worse with fare less plausible lies."

"You lied?" asked Ron incredulously.

"No, she actually told the truth this time," Diana assured.

There was a knock at the door and before a bushy haired girl, and a plump boy made their way in the infirmary.

"Finally found you!" sighed Hermione in relief.

"Hey, Mione! Had a safe journey?" Diana asked jovially.

"Of course I did!" The girls snapped. "Unlike you two I took the train!"

"Before you start yelling, let us explain," said Heidi in a tired voice.

The next half an hour or so was spent explaining the same story they had told Dumbledore, up until Madam Pomfrey came in the room and scurried the kids off to bed. Diana staid with Heidi in the hospital wing, while Ron went back to the common room with Hermione and Neville. There he was congratulated by most of his house and given a talking-to by Percy.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: Narcissus**

The next morning was in no way pleasant for the girls. Heidi was still stuck in the hospital wing (madam Pomfrey had refused to let her go to classes), and would be staying there till the end of the week; Ron had received a Howler and Diana a letter from her parents (the girl was quite glad that Petunia and Vernon weren't to familiar with wizarding policies, or else, they would have certainly sent a Howler as well), but the worst part of the morning had been the _chat _Diana had had to endure with Draco.

"You chose to ride Weasley's excuse of a car instead of coming on the train with me?!" Draco yelled.

"If I would have had a choice, believe me, I would have taken the train," Diana assured.

The start of the day hadn't been so bad. She had woken up in the hospital wing, next to her sister (who was still sound asleep), Hermione and Neville had come by to visit and madam Pomfrey had assured her she could go to class (and that Heidi wasn't coming), so Diana had left for the great hall to eat breakfast with Hermione and Neville.

There, my friends, is where the tragedy started.

The moment Diana walked into the great hall, a horrible sort of shriek assaulted her and she clapped her hands on her ears so to stop the atrocious sound, but she still heard every word (much to her discontent). It was Missis Weasley's voice, or so she had deduced form the yells (more rather howls) that were coming from Ron Weasley's direction. The poor boy was red in the face and almost hiding under the table (which, unfortunately, didn't cover up his red hair). Diana felt sorry for the poor kid and wanted to apologies to him, but it hadn't been ten seconds since she walked into the great hall, when Draco Malfoy came up to her and literary dragged her out the doors and into the dungeons where he proceeded to scream at her for about half-an-hour or so. So that my friends is how she ended up in this situation.

"Then why didn't you?" Draco asked in mock interest, something between a smile and a snarl was plastered on his face and Diana didn't like it one bit.

"Because the barrier closed down! I knocked head first into it!" Diana answered through gritted teeth. This little jealous boyfriend fiasco was starting to get on her nerves.

"Oh, that's rich," snarled Draco. "I walked right through it that day and it didn't close up in my nose! You know what I think? I think you're just making this whole thing up so that you'd have an excuse to ride Weasley's rusted up old car!"

Ok, that did it. _Who the hell does this stupid blonde think he is to call me a liar?_ Diana's eye twitched and in the next moment Draco found himself at the receiver's end of the red heads wrath.

"Do you now?" she started out simple, with a mock-tone; then the yelling came. "Well I assure you it is NOT! I actually crashed into that stinking barrier and I HAVE THE SCARS TO PROVE IT! And don't think riding in an overheated car all day with _nothing_ to do except _talk_, with a boy nonetheless! I mean if it was a girl at lest I'd have something to talk about, but you boys are emotionless little boxes walking on to pair of clumsy sticks! And, you know, that car is actually old, it started _breaking down_ HALF WAY! You know what, I'd like to se _you_ ride in one of those, while I sit down and watch you squirm; because, seriously, I think you would have fainted in the first _five seconds_ when the engine started giving up! Oh, and let's talk about the landing shell we; bumping into a tree that hit back, nearly getting squashed in that excuse of a car and the best part: Albus Dumbledore coming to reprimand you personally! That was my _favorite_ part!" she finished ironically.

Draco was glaring at her as if she had sprouted another head. "So…you didn't like it?" he asked confused.

"Like it!" she asked outraged. "I HATED IT!"

"Oh…" the blond said in lack of anything better. "What about Weasley? Do you like h-"

"I'm dating you, aren't I?!" the red head asked sarcastically.

"That doesn't ans-"

"NO!" Diana snapped. "I don't like him! Get that into your head because I'm not saying it a second time!"

Draco mutely nodded his head.

"Good! Now let's get back to the feast, I'm starving." Diana made to leave, but Draco grabbed her wrist and pulled her back. "What?" she asked impatiently.

"You're my girlfriend, right?" the blond asked in a cold, seemingly uncaring voice.

"Duh," Diana answered not sure where this was going.

"Then, as my girlfriend, you should sit beside me at the Slytherin table," he said, sounding nothing less then a diplomat selling his political bullshit to the press.

Diana stared at his in amusement, waiting for the blond to laugh and say it was all a joke, but to her displeasure, the blond remained positively serious. "I'm a Gryffindor," she pointed out as the smile slowly dropped from her face.

"So?" Draco asked unfazed. "I don't think there is a rule that forbids you from sitting at another house's table."

"Draco, you're a Slytherin!" Diana tried explaining in that sweet, patient voice that people normally used to explain things to little kids. "I'm a Gryffindor! Gryffindors and Slytherins are not exactly the best of friends, so, my housemates would be mad, and your housemates would be mad; you get where I'm going here?"

"I'll deal with the Slytherins," Draco waved a dismissive hand, "and the Gryffindors will just have to get used to it; after all, they're bound to find out that we're dating eventually."

"Yeah, but I'd rather not blow the news up in their faces," Diana said, a strained sort of smile made its way across her face.

"You want to sit with Weasley don't you?" Draco accused.

"No! I want to sit with Hermione and Neville!" Diana snapped. "Ah, what is wrong with you? You're acting like a spoiled little brat!"

"What is _wrong_ is that my _girlfriend_ doesn't want to sit with me at the feast!" Draco replied in a critical tone.

Diana nodded her head in annoyance and started chewing on her bottom lip. "Tell you what," the words came out muffled as she slowly released her bottom lip. "How bout we postpone this whole sitting at another table thing up until next month."

"Next month?!" asked Draco outraged.

"If you don't like it, you can come sit at the Gryffindor table with me," Diana stated simply.

"I can't sit at the Gryffindor table, your housemates would eat me alive," Draco protested.

"Well I don't like the idea of sitting at your table either!" Diana snarled. "So I guess we'll just have to compromise and sit at our respective tables for now." The red head folded her hands over her chest and gave the blond a pointed glare. "Is that ok with you?"

"Fine!" Draco said reluctant. "But you're not going anywhere near Weasley!"

"Fine!" said Diana brusquely marched out of the dungeons without another word. She entered the great hall and took her seat next to Neville and Hermione at the Gryffindor table…and a barn owl landed straight in her lap.

"Oh, heck," Diana swore when she recognized the barn owl she had bought her parents…and the letter wasn't as bad as the howler, but not by far. It worried her that her parents had spent so much time writing their complains and Vernon definitely added the chunk about _this is all because of your excuse of a boyfriend_ thing. But she didn't have time to ponder over the fact for too long because McGonagall showed up with their schedules.

"We have double Herbology first," Neville said excited while Diana groaned out loud.

"Neville, I'm teaming up with you," the red head stated.

Diana, Hermione and Neville made their way toward the greenhouse where the Hufflepuffs and the rest of the Gryffindors were patiently waiting for Professor Sprout, the Herbology teacher.

Not long after they joined the group of students did the scoutish teacher made her appearance with none other then Gilderoy Lockhart trailing behind her. Diana noted that the elder woman's arms were covered in bandages and a tad of guilt alongside no small amount of rage passed through her as she glared hatefully at the hideous tree they had bumped in last night (Whomping Willow or so Lee Jordan had called it).

"Oh, hello there!" Lockhart beamed at the assembled crowd. "Just been showing Professor Sprout the right way to doctor a Whomping Willow! But I don't want you running away with the idea that I'm better at Herbology than she is! I just happen to have met several of these exotic plants on my travels…"

If Diana thought less of him when she read the titles of his books, she definitely lost any sort of respect for the narcissistic man that stood beaming in front of them like an idiot who's only good traits were his smile…and that wasn't pretty to see either. Hermione however sighed next to her, alongside Lavender and Parvati who were looking at him like he was the savior of human kind incarnated in the flesh.

"Greenhouse three today, chaps!" said Professor Sprout with none of her usual cheery tone.

Diana felt, rather then saw Lockhart's eyes scrutinizing the crowd and she quickly hid behind Hermione, as to avoid getting spotted; something told her she wouldn't escape that paparazzi fanboy without a mind blowing speech. She was one of the first to rush into the greenhouse after Professor Sprout and dragged Hermione and Neville behind a plant pot where she hid up until Lockhart strolled off somewhere.

"What was that all about?" Hermione asked annoyed.

"Oh, nothing, just…" Diana answered while double-checking that Lockhart was nowhere nearby. "Just making sure we got paired up together."

"Right," Hermione nodded clearly not believing one word.

"We'll be repotting Mandrakes today." Professor Sprout's voice had the three rushing up towards the group of children in the very center of the greenhouse. "Now, who can tell me the properties of the Mandrake?"

Hermione had her hand in the air before she reached her seat.

"Yes, Miss Granger."

"Mandrake, or Mandragora, is a powerful restorative," recited Hermione, as if reading out of a textbook. "It is used to return people who have been transfigured or cursed to their original state."

_Restoring people back to their original state? Now that's interesting_, Diana thought excited. _Heidi is so gonna cry for missing this_.

"Excellent. Ten points to Gryffindor," said Professor Sprout. "The Mandrake forms an essential part of most antidotes. It is also, however, dangerous. Who can tell me why?"

Hermione's hand narrowly missed smacking into Neville's chin as it shot up again.

"The cry of the Mandrake is fatal to anyone who hears it," she said promptly. Well, that burst Diana's bubble of joy.

"Precisely. Take another ten points."

At least they were making points.

"Now, the Mandrakes we have here are still very young..."

The Mandrakes were nothing next to impressive and far from cute when you pulled them out of their pot, in fact they looked so ugly and disturbingly similar to human babies that Diana screamed in horror after she pulled hers our; luckily no one heard her because you couldn't actually hear a damn thing through the earmuffs she had on (pink and fluffy of course).

Justin Finch-Fletchley, a curly-haired Hufflepuff boy, joined their team and so the hour dragged by with Diana only half listening, half dozing off next to Neville who was duteously working on his ugly baby-plant. By the end of the class everyone was sweaty, aching, and covered in earth; everyone except Diana who had agreed to write Neville's Charms essay for two weeks if he took care of her grotesque baby (Herbology, just like Potions, was definitely going to fly off the list of subjects she would be learning as soon as possible).

The children had Transfiguration next, much to Diana's dismay, because Heidi was the one talented in that subject and without her around to coach Diana a little it was bound to be a disaster.

And it really was calamitous, since Diana hadn't opened a book the whole summer, always making up excuses as to not have to sit through a study session with her sister, she had forgotten every freaking spell they'd learned the previous year, and therefore, when McGonagall told them to transform a beetle into a button she wasted the whole hour trying to catch the beetle rather then transfigure it.

Diana and Neville couldn't have been happier as the lunch bell rang and ran out of the class as fast as possible; Hermione however looked slightly disappointed, since this _was _the only time she actually got to complete the spell first in Transfiguration (Heidi _always_ beat her to it, at least in this subject).

"What have we got next?" asked Diana eager to get the catastrophic event out of her mind.

"Defense Against the Dark Arts," said Hermione at once. Diana stopped dead in her track and looked at her in pure horror.

"Really?" she asked weakly.

"Mm hmm," Hermione beamed with pride and regarded the schedule dreamingly, which to Diana's horror, had all of Lockhart's classes outlined in little hearts.

"Are you _seriously_ crushing on a teacher Mione?" asked Diana in a shocked tone.

"N-no, of course not," Hermione hurried to deny.

"I liked it better when you were crushing on the Weasley prat," Diana stated in a fowl mood. Not only did she have DADA with that paparazzi fanboy, but her BFF had apparently chosen another dumb person to crush on (not that she thought that that conceited bastard was capable of loving anything but himself).

Diana didn't felt much like eating after that disappointing conversation and instead of going to lunch like everybody else, she stood guard outside and waited patiently up until Draco and his gang finally came along and dragged the blond boy away from his two bullies and an ugly girl who was walking far to close to _her_ boyfriend for the red heads liking and glared at their retreating backs up until they were out the doors.

"Diana, where are we going?" asked Draco confused.

"I just had the worst day ever!" the red head whined. She dragged the blond through the castle grounds, towards the lake and stopped in front of an old tree where she sat down and motioned for Draco to do the same.

"You should have told me in advance so I could bring a mantle," the blond said as he sat himself beside her.

"What? Are you afraid to get your portentous ass dirty?" Diana smiled cheekily at him.

"Yes. If you must know, having fresh dirt or stains of grass on my robes doesn't sound that appealing in my opinion," Draco huffed and wrinkled his nose in disgust.

Diana snorted and countered with: "it's not like you wash them!"

"_Me _wash clothes?" he asked appalled. "Can you honestly imagine that?"

"I don't even want to," Diana answered in a distant voice as her hazel eyes trailed around the surface of the black lake. "It's so nice here." The tone was quiet, almost happy; her eyes gazed at the panoramic scene before her with contempt and then closed slowly as her head turned to rest on Draco's shoulder.

"Yeah, it's quite nice," answered a very flushed Malfoy. "So, what was it that made your day so horrible?"

The boy had no idea that that innocent question would completely ruin the good mood in which the girl beside him had been caught up in.

"Oh, I'll tell you what ruined my day!" snarled Diana; her hear rose up so fast that Draco had to duck to the side to avoid getting hit. "Gilderoy Lockhart happened! That egotistic, self-centered, narcissistic, _bastard_!"

For the next half-an-hour, Draco learned that he should just keep his big mouth shut the next time and hope for the best.

"Diana," he interrupted before his girlfriend could burst a vein. "Why do you hate Lockhart so much when you haven't even had classes with him yet?" the blond asked truly intrigued, he had, after all, never seen the red head getting so worked up over a stranger (if you don't count the unicorn killer, but that was a different story all together).

"Well he's a narcissistic-"

"I get that," Draco held out his hands to stop her rant. "The first impression wasn't the best, but that doesn't mean he is the horrible person you make him out to be! Think about it! You barely know this guy! He might turn out to be better then you thought, just give him a chance, ok?" Draco was actually lying through his teeth and suspected he would be at the receiver's end of another one of the red head's nerve testing speeches very soon; after all, he had met Lockhart a few times in his life and his father warned him that the man was the embodiment of the sin of greed and that was pretty much it, but he hoped Diana would not be to quick to realize that and spare him a few more hours.

"Well, you do have a point there," admitted Diana slightly embarrassed. "I mean I shouldn't judge people based on the first impression only. I think I'll give this Lockhart guy another chance!" she said determined. "Everybody deserves one," Diana nodded proud of herself.

"Ok then, how about we head back to the Great Hall and catch what's left of lunch?" suggested Draco.

Diana turned to give him an odd look. "You really are a walking cardboard box with no emotions aren't you?" she shock her head in disappointment and stood up.

"Or, we could stay here?" Draco abrogated.

"Still a comedian, aren't you?" Diana flashed him a grin and kissed him on the cheek. "Let's go eat lunch! I can't have my boyfriend dying of hunger now can I?"

The boy nodded, still in a slight stage of shock as he slowly trailed a finger over his burning cheek.

------

_Ok, so maybe there is still hope for this day after all_, mussed Diana merrily.

She and Draco had made it back to the Great Hall about halfway in the feast and had time to enjoy a healthy amount of roast chicken, fried potatoes and sausages before desert literary popped up on the plates, today consisting of treacle tart, vanilla flavored pudding and strawberry ice-cream. Then Diana linked arms with Hermione and Neville (who apparently was a permanent member of their group since the boys weren't actually nice to him and the girls rather enjoyed his company) and the three made their way towards their first Defense Against the Dark Arts class.

Diana had every intention of upholding her promise to Draco and give the new teacher a chance to redeem himself for the… less then satisfying first-impression.

Regardless of her promise, she would most certainly _not_ sit at the front of the class where Hermione had taken residence the moment she walked in, no, she and Neville decided to sit somewhere in the middle of the class (she didn't want the poor bloke thinking she was avoiding him after all).

It didn't take Lockhart much to make his grand appearance, in fact, he came marching through the back door of his office, his large turquoise cape billowing dramatically behind him, his mouth shrewd into a dazzling smile that revealed every ounce of white teeth in his mouth, his wand raised spectacularly high up into the air and with a overconfident glee in his eyes assorted to a neatly combed pack of golden hair; he began walking confidently to the front of the class, making sure to flash a heart-full smile in the direction of every girl who was drooling over him.

_Ok, not exactly the comeback I've expected, but there's still time_, Diana assured herself as panic started creeping under her skin when Lockhart's eyes gave a sudden sparkle as they landed on her.

Lockhart cleared his throat loudly and silence fell across the students. He reached forward, picked up a copy of _Travels with Trolls_, and held it up to show his own, winking portrait on the front.

"Me," he said, pointing at it and winking as well. "Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin, Third Class, Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defense League, and five-time winner of _Witch Weekly_'s Most Charming Smile Award but I don't talk about that. I didn't get rid of the Bandon Banshee by _smiling_ at her!"

_There is still time_, Diana tried to reason as a twisted sort of smile made its way across her face.

"I see you've all bought a complete set of my books — well done. I thought we'd start today with a little quiz. Nothing to worry about — just to check how well you've read them, how much you've taken in —"

He handed each student a tank of papers with no less then _fifty-four_ _questions_.

_Little quiz my ass_! snorted Diana. _This is a full out test_!

"You have thirty minutes — start —_now_!"

Diana quickly scanned over the piece of paper she had in front and then turned to glare incredulously at the teacher, who was cheerily sitting at his table, humming to himself.

The test was utter rubbish and had little if no connection with the DADA class they were taking and everything to do with the Professor that happily stood on his lazy ass and beamed at one of his portraits.

_This guy's Narcissus in the flesh_, Diana concluded. She threw a peeved look at the piece of parchment before her and shoved it aside opting to work on her Transfiguration homework instead; she wanted to see if she could at least make the chopstick in her pocket turn to a needle.

"Diana, aren't you going to do your quiz?" asked Neville who was already on the thirty-something question.

"What do I look like, a fangirl?" Diana asked skeptically. "I have no clue on how to answer any of these stupid questions, and look at the pile of books in front," she pointed at the eight novels (or so she had deemed them) which laid neatly on her desk, "cheating isn't actually an option, now is it?"

"I can help you," suggested Neville shyly and turned his paper towards her.

"Thanks," Diana smiled a grateful smile, "but I'm really not into this right now. You go on and work. Don't worry about me."

"If you're sure," Neville said and turned back to his own parchment.

Half an hour later and ten unsuccessful attempts at turning the piece of wood into metal, Lockhart collected the papers and rifled through them in front of the class.

"Tut, tut — hardly any of you remembered that my favorite color is lilac. I say so in _Year with the Yeti_."

_Like we care_, Diana wanted to say.

"And a few of you need to read _Wanderings with Werewolves_ more carefully — I clearly state in chapter twelve that my ideal birthday gift would be harmony between all magic and non-magic peoples — though I wouldn't say no to a large bottle of Ogdeds Old Firewhisky!"

_He's a drunk addict too_, Diana shock her head truly disappointed.

Neville turned a confused look Lockhart's way, while Seamus, Ron and Dean, who were sitting to their left, were shaking in uncontrollable fits of laughter. Hermione, on the other hand, was listening to Lockhart with rapt attention and gave a start when he mentioned her name.

"… but Miss Hermione Granger knew my secret ambition is to rid the world of evil and market my own range of hair-care potions — good girl!"

Diana had to stiffen a laugh when she heard that line. _A hair-care potion? Was this guy for real?_

"In fact" — he flipped her paper over — "full marks! Where is Miss Hermione Granger?"

Hermione raised a trembling hand.

"Excellent!" beamed Lockhart. "Quite excellent! Take ten points for Gryffindor!"

_Oh, it's nice to know you can get points in this class for knowing more about the teacher, talk about favoritism_, Diana grunted vexed.

"And so on to business!"

Lockhart bent down behind his desk and lifted a large covered cage onto it.

"Now — be warned!" he uttered in a dramatic tone. "It is my job to arm you against the foulest creatures known to wizardkind! You may find yourselves facing your worst fears in this room."

Diana thought she was already facing her worst fear at the very moment. _Could Lockhart be any worse then this?_

"Know only that no harm can befall you whilst I am here. All I ask is that you remain calm."

Diana was definitely panicking after that; she didn't think the ego-inflated-paparazzi-fanboy in front could protect himself from Peeves, let alone a whole bunch of students. Neville was shaking beside her.

"I must ask you not to scream," said Lockhart in a low voice. "It might provoke them."

As the whole class held its breath, Lockhart whipped off the cover.

"Yes," he said dramatically. "_Freshly caught Cornish pixies_."

Seamus burst into fits of uncontrolled laughter at the sight of the pixies while Diana gave a squeak of delight; finally something she was good at.

Diana smiled at the electric-blue creatures who took one look at her and started whistling and waving.

"Right, then," Lockhart said loudly. "Let's see what you make of them!" And he opened the cage.

It was pandemonium. As soon as the ugly little buggers found themselves free they proceeded to wreck the class more effectively then a herd of elephants could. They started tearing the pictures of the walls and soaked the kids with the bottles of ink while some of them rounded on the children, picking and scratching at their robes, others were ripping the books up into tiny bits and pieces while some where throwing them at the kids.

Ron was desperately trying to pinpoint Diana among all the chaos so that he could get her out of the place, while Seamus and Dean were desperately fighting off some pixies which were pulling on their hairs and noses.

"Ron," Seamus called, but the freckled faced boy was already a good distance away from them.

Hermione had ducked under a tabled and was trying to find her wand, which had, unfortunately, fallen out of her hands when the commotion had started.

Neville was rotten to the spot next to Diana who was cheerfully talking to a bunch of pixies — their desk was the only one among the madness which seemed to be completely unscratched; the other pixies would either come around and chat with the red head or completely avoid their table.

"Neville, this is Rusty," Diana said, pointing at one of the pixies that were conversing with her. "He's the leader of the group!"

"Hi," Neville managed to say in a week tone.

"Come on now — round them up, round them up, they're only pixies," Lockhart shouts diverted the pixies' attention from Neville.

The Rusty pixie started making rude gestures and pointed at Lockhart. Diana gave a nod of agreement and whispered something to the pixie leader who nodded his head and gestured for the other pixies to follow him. They all swooshed down on Lockhart as he bellowed "_Peskipiksi Pesternomi_!" (which had absolutely no effect) and seized his wand and threw it out the window. Then they proceeded to tousle his hair and rip his robes; one of them even tossed the cape over his head which had the poor man stumbling blindly around up until her collided with his desk and fell on his butt.

Neville was howling on the ground with laughter while Seamus and Dean managed to get to the door and run out of the classroom along with most of the students that weren't hanging by the roof and a multitude of pixies that were still chasing after them.

Hermione finally managed to retrieve her wand and rushed to Lockhart's side and tried to immobilize the two or so pixies that were hovering over him, but to no avail; the pixies swooped past her, gave one last wink towards Diana and Neville who waved merrily at them and then darted past a shocked faced Ron and out the door.

"You're ok?" Ron asked flabbergasted.

"Better then ok," Neville said still chuckling slightly.

"Professor Lockhart has been hurt!" Hermione said frantically.

"Who cares!" Both Neville and Diana said at the same time and grabbed a hold of Hermione then started dragging her out the door while the girl tried desperately to get loose. Ron hurried after them not wanting to get caught all alone in a destroyed classroom with an unconscious teacher — Filch wouldn't listen to reason.

"How did you manage that?" Ron asked. "You know, to escape the pixies?"

"Ron, I wasn't trying to escape the pixies," Diana assured. "I love animals! And they love me. Lockhart, on the other hand, should be more carful with what he brings to class next time if he doesn't wanna end up fainting on the floor."

"He was hurt!" Hermione squealed.

"Again, we don't care!" Diana said and kept dragging her in the general direction of the Great Hall.


	4. Chapter 4

**AN**: I'm not sure if I should rate this Mature or not just for a few scenes scattered around here and there and some violence in this chapter, but just to be on the safe side, I will.

**Chapter 4: The "M" word**

The mother of all misfortune seemed to have fallen down on the quartet the following days. Neville had received not one but two troll grades in Potions and had blown up a number of three caldrons which seems to please Snape very much, since he gave the poor boy a month's worth of detention.

Heidi had finally escaped the hospital wing only to knock head first into one Colin Creevey, who was apparently a big fan (though he was Muggle-born and knew shit about Voldemort or his cronies), and she had the pleasure of bumping into Lockhart when Colin had asked for a signed photograph.

"Let me just say that handing out signed pictures at this stage of your career isn't sensible — looks a tad bigheaded, Heidi, to be frank. There may well come a time when, like me, you'll need to keep a stack handy wherever you go, but" — he gave a little chortle — "I don't think you're quite there yet."

Heidi had never in her life wanted to punch anyone more then Lockhart; and the DADA class she had with him that Friday did nothing to improve her low opinion of the teacher.

Diana, on the other hand, was dealing with more prominent issues (for her at lest), like Hermione's crush on not just Lockhart, but Ron Weasley as well. The red head was desperately trying to keep her bushy haired friend far away from both men, which, in her opinion, were not qualified to dating her friend.

Lets not forget that the whole ordeal of Colin Creevey following her around all day had led to numerous fights with her boyfriend who wanted nothing more then to hex the living daylight out of the first year. And her personal favorite: Pansy Parkinson, a Slytherin in Draco's year, who apparently had a crush on Draco, had tried threatening her into leaving the blond.

"I don't know what Draco sees in you, you filthy little half-blood!" Pansy snarled one morning when she bumped into Diana and her group. The pug-faced girl was accompanied by a black boy with curly hair and a black-haired girl who had a heavy jaw that jutted out in an aggressive fashion.

Diana took one look at her and said in a patronizing tone, "I definitely know what he doesn't see in you!"

"Diana, don't waste your time with her," Hermione said and started dragging the red head towards their class.

"No one asked you, you filthy little _Mudblood_!" sneered the heavy jawed girl from beside Pansy.

"How dare you!" Neville yelled indignantly.

Heidi's wand was in her hands before Neville had stopped speaking. "Take that back!" she hissed threateningly at the girl in front who took a slight step back at the sharp tone the other girl used.

"Put that down, half-blood or else I'll report you!" shrieked Pansy in a high pitched voice when she saw Neville and Diana draw their wands as well.

The heavy jawed girl took out her wand and prompted Pansy to do the same. The curly haired black boy gave a frustrated sigh when Pansy removed her wand from her pocket and took his own out begrudgingly.

"Blaize! Bulstrode! Pansy! What do you think you're doing?" Draco Malfoy came skidding down the corridor followed closely by his two cronies Crabbe and Goyle. "Put those down, right now!" he grabbed a hold of Blaize's wand and lowered it to the ground. One pointed look in Bulstrode's direction had the girl's wand lowered too. "Pansy!"

"She goes first!" Pansy said and motioned towards Diana who still had her wand pointed straight at Pansy's face.

Draco sighed in annoyance and stepped between the two girls' pointed wands and lowered them to the ground; he then swung his arm around Diana's shoulder and guided her from Pansy's general direction. Heidi, Hermione and Neville turned to follow them while Crabbe and Goyle staid behind. Diana turned to smirk triumphantly in Pansy's angry face then kissed the blond on the cheek, who flushed slightly.

Hermione had been quite curious about the whole Mudblood term and nearly had a fit when she found out what it meant. From that day onward, war was declared between the two Slytherin girls and the three Gryffindor ones; Parvati and Lavender were soon to join the fight, and bring Parvati's Ravenclaw sister, Padma, in as well; so, as per expected, Potions was torture that Friday for one Severus Snape.

Diana, who usually refused to work in Potions, had teamed up with none other then Draco Malfoy for the class, much to the Gryffindors' and Slytherins' surprise. She had purposely seated herself right behind Pansy and Millicent Bulstrode and had spent most of the hour tickling the girls or pushing them around, so, by the end of the class, it wasn't surprising when their caldron went BOOM. Draco had dutifully worked on their Potion, while trying to stop his demented girlfriend from doing any damaged to his housemates and failed dramatically (needless to say his Potion didn't look so good by the end of the class).

Snape as always turned a blind eye to Diana's behavior much to the Slytherins' dislike and the Gryffindors' delight, since Snape actually reprimanded the two for their blown up caldron. He did however pair up Neville with Lavender Brown who ended up blowing two caldrons in one class and loosing the Gryffindors a total of 35 house-points; plus he and Lavender were sent to the hospital wing with minor burns on their face and hands.

After that disastrous start of term, the quartet was glad the weekend finally caught up to them and had planed the previous day to go visit Hagrid and Diana had a little date planed out with Draco that afternoon. Unfortunately Wood arrived to spoil their fun.

Heidi was woken up hours earlier then she normally would have by a drowsy looking Angelina Johnson.

"Wood wants to start Quidditch practice," the chocolate faced girl said while stiffening a yawn.

And Heidi remembered why she started hating McGonagall in the first place. "Just a few more minutes," Heidi whined.

"Sorry!" Angelina threw the cover off of her, leaving the green eyed girl exposed to the chilling air of the morning. "I don't like this any more then you do, but Wood is going to start screaming downstairs and wake the whole house if we're not down in five minutes."

"Curse you Oliver Wood!" Heidi swore as she angrily rose from her bed.

The racket Heidi caused while getting dressed woke Hermione and Diana as well.

"Why're u up soearly?" asked Diana still half snoring.

"Quidditch practice," Heidi answered. Diana seemed to suddenly remember something as she sat bolt up right and shouted at the other still sleeping girls.

"UP! We have coir rehearsal in two hours!" She hasted off her bed and shock Parvati and Lavender roughly who woke up with a start.

"Diana! Two hours!" Lavender reminded her after looking at the clock.

"So? We have to wash, put on our make-up, go to the great hall and eat and make it on time for the rehearsal, and god knows you two take hours in the bathroom!"

"Oh, yeah!" Parvati nodded and rushed to her trunk to pick up her things. "I'm first!" she said and darted pass Heidi who exited the bathroom dressed in her Quidditch robes.

"I will never stop thinking this thing is the most ridiculous suit on earth," she said scowling at her Quidditch robes.

"Is not," said Angelina with a slight chuckle.

"I'm coming with you," Hermione said, all dressed up in a neckband creamy top with white colored Capri pants and a matching white jacket. Lavender and Diana had styled her hair in neat curls and were now working on her make-up.

"Wow," Heidi said smiling approvingly at her.

"You look gorgeous," commented Angelina.

"Thanks," said a very flushed Hermione.

"Now all we have to get you is a date!" squeaked Lavender.

"You're ready to go, milady," Diana said in a pleasant tone.

Hermione nodded her head and jumped out of the bed on which she was seated and dashed out of the room faster then you could say Quidditch, with Heidi and Angelina running to catch up to her.

"Why are you so stubbornly obsessed with avoiding those three?" Heidi shouted after her. "It's not like they don't do a good job at styling you up."

"Because it isn't any fun! Having someone else fuss over you and try to make you wear something you don't want to isn't fun!" Hermione answered vexed.

"Oh, come on! You'd look good in a dress! Even a skirt!" Heidi assured.

"Yes, why don't you try wearing one of those?" asked Angelina.

"I am _not_ wearing a skirt!" Hermione snapped at them.

"You know our school uniforms are made of a black knee length _skirt_, a white shirt and a black overcoat, right?" Heidi asked in a skeptic tone.

"I'm still not wearing skirts!" Hermione said stubbornly.

"Whatever you say girl," Heidi shock her head.

"Heidi, Hermione, wait for me!" Neville came galloping down the portrait hole.

"You're up for Quidditch this early in the morning?" asked Heidi in wonder.

"Actually Ron's snores woke me up, and I was thinking you guys were going down for breakfast," the boy answered when he caught up to them. "I wouldn't mind watching you play, though. Then we can all go to breakfast!"

"Not a chance," Angelina said in a grumpy tone. "Knowing Wood, he's gonna keep us there till lunch!"

"Then can you and Hermione go and grab us something to eat, Neville?" asked Heidi.

"Sure," Neville nodded; then he and Hermione went into the great hall while Heidi and Angelina walked out the front oak doors and onto the castle grounds.

At long last the two girls finally reached the Quidditch pitch and headed for the locker room where the rest of the team was gathered. The start of the Quidditch season was hell, and especially since Wood was their team captain. The sixth year had apparently no life of his own and spent all his time drawing out three whole boards of strategic movements and all the other mumbo-jumbo to which no one paid much attention. Fred dropped his head in Alicia's lap who was sound asleep since Heidi walked in, while Katy was leaning on Angelina who in terms was drooling on George's shoulder who kept mumbling from time to time about his mother or something.

Heidi found herself wishing she was with Hermione and Neville in the great hall, or at lest with Diana and her two other loud friends heading to professor Flitwick's class, either of those would be more interesting then hearing Wood drone on and on about his stupid game strategy that no one showed the slight amount of interest in. Her eyes slowly began to close as Wood's fuzzy image became dimmer and dimmer, till only darkness remained.

She felt her head lying on something hard and her eyes closed, for some reason, she didn't feel like opening them. A soft fluttering noise could be heard from above coming closer and closer…

A minor tingling sensation settled on her skin as a wave of dark aura descended upon her making her giggle slightly; then a moist, soft substance brushed over her mouth as a pair of demanding lip crashed onto hers and enveloped them in a searing kiss. Her brain stopped working properly upon the contact as she responded to the demanding being with equal vigor. A slight amount of silver liquid made its way pass her lips as their mouths crashed against each other. Her lips slowly parted and the tongue of the other slipped inside her mouth along with a good amount of the silver substance, which trailed softly down her tongue and up her throat. The bittersweet taste of copper mashed with cold ice and some other essence flooded her mouth as her tongue waltzed around that of the other's dominant one.

"Is that clear? Any questions?" The voice of Oliver Wood brought Heidi back to reality. She franticly looked around searching for the cloaked figure she had met in the forest and visibly relaxed when she saw she was in the Quidditch locker room surrounded by all her team mates who were looking at Wood as if he were not there.

"I've got a question, Oliver," said George. "Why couldn't you have told us all this yesterday when we were awake?"

Wood wasn't pleased and proceeded to glower some random stuff about them and their Quidditch practice while Heidi tried to clear her head by shaking it furiously from one side to the other. She could not believe she'd just dreamt of kissing Voldemort. Maybe her sister was right; maybe she did have to get herself a boyfriend, at least to wash up the bad taste of kissing a murdered out of her mouth.

"Okay, let's go and put our new theories into practice!" Wood shouted and seized his broom. Heidi, immensely glad for the distraction, was the first one to follow him out onto the pitch.

"Aren't you finished yet?" came Neville's voice from somewhere above. Heidi lifted her head up and caught a glimpse of two figures sitting on the Quidditch stands.

"Haven't even started," she yelled and waved at Hermione and Neville, who were holding up a plate of sandwiches and a jar of marmalade.

"Don't take too long," said Hermione as she pointed at the pile of food they had brought.

Heidi smiled gratefully at them and mounted her broom.

You had to hand it to these wizards; they could create one of the most ridiculous games on earth; but it didn't mean it wasn't fun, far from it, Heidi quite frankly enjoyed the feel of freedom that always accompanied her when she was on a broom (not that she thought it was any less ridiculous, but she could live with that), and the adrenaline that came with it as the wind blew sturdily into her face, making her hair and cloths billow behind her. She started racing Fred and George around the pitch at full speed, and while the other two reproved her for having a faster broom, Wood started shouting at them for messing around.

"What's that funny clicking noise?" called Fred as they hurtled around a corner.

Heidi looked up in the stands and saw Colin Creevey in one of the highest seats, his camera raised high and taking picture after picture.

"Look this way, Heidi! This way!" he cried shrilly.

Heidi's blood reached boiling point when she realized that the nagging little pipsqueak had taken pictures of her on a stupid broom and she rocketed towards the first year like an enraged bull.

She didn't hear George commenting on the fact that the Slytherin team was here as she hurtled the camera out of the boy's hands and smashed it on the ground.

"You are NOT to take pictures of me again!" she hissed threateningly at the first year who was cowering in fright before her.

"Flint!" She heard Wood's voice from down below and swooped towards her teammates, which where gather on the ground together with the Slytherin team. "This is our practice time! We got up specially! You can clear off now!"

"Plenty of room for all of us, Wood." replied the Slytherin captain.

"Actually, there isn't!" said Heidi acidly.

"But I booked the field!" said Wood, positively spitting with rage. "I booked it!"

"Ah," said Flint. "But I've got a specially signed note here from Professor Snape. '_I, Professor S. Snape, give the Slytherin team permission to practice today on the Quidditch field owing to the need to train their new Seeker_'. "

"You've got a new Seeker?" said Wood, distracted. "Where?"

From behind the hoard of mountain troll players emerged a seventh person with such a huge grin on his pointed face that it could well enough rival Lockhart's all teeth smile.

"Draco?! You play Quidditch?" asked Heidi taken aback.

"Of course I do!" said the blond proudly. "Don't you remember first year?"

"Are you referring to that part were I almost knocked you off your broom?" Heidi asked sweetly.

"_Almost_ is the key word here," replied Draco in an offended tone.

"Aren't you Lucius Malfoy's son?" said Fred, looking at Malfoy with dislike.

"Funny you should mention Draco's father," said Flint as the assembled Slytherins smiled more broadly. "Let me show you the generous gift he's made to the Slytherin team."

They pulled out their broomsticks. Seven sets of highly polished, gold lustrous brooms entitled Nimbus 2001 gleamed under the Gryffindors' noses in the bright morning light.

"Very latest model. Only came out last month," said Flint carelessly, flicking a speck of dust from the end of his own. "I believe it outstrips the old Two Thousand series by a considerable amount. As for the old Cleansweeps" — he smiled nastily at Fred and George, who were both clutching Cleansweep Fives —" sweeps the board with them."

"Hmm," Heidi nodded looking truly impressed. "Nice!" she complimented. "Now your beaters are going to get to clean you off the board faster then they did last year," she smiled sweetly at him. The other Gryffindors couldn't help but laugh despite the fact that it wasn't anything funny about the whole ordeal.

Flint's fists clenched into rocks. "Or maybe they'll have a better chance at getting you out of the air this time," he snarled.

"Keep on wishing Flinty boy," countered Heidi cheerily. "Maybe something will fall out of the sky and hit me across the head while I'm playing, you know, just like your broomsticks did."

"What's happening?" Hermione asked as she hurried towards Heidi.

"Why aren't you playing?" asked Neville. "And what's Malfoy doing here?"

"I'm the new Slytherin Seeker, Longbottom," said Malfoy, smugly. "Everyone's just been admiring the brooms my father's bought our team."

Neville gaped, open-mouthed, at the seven superb broomsticks in front of him.

"Good, aren't they?" said Draco smoothly. "But perhaps the Gryffindor team will be able to raise some gold and get new brooms, too. You could raffle off those Cleansweep Fives; I expect a museum would bid for them."

The Slytherin team howled with laughter.

"At least no one on the Gryffindor team had to _buy_ their way in," said Hermione sharply. "_They_ got in on pure talent."

Draco had no idea where his head was when he said the following phrase, but he would come to regret it for the rest of his life: "No one asked your opinion, you filthy little _Mudblood_," he spat.

The people in the surrounding area didn't even have time to process what the blond had said, when a fist collided with his nose and sent him spinning towards the ground faster then Flint could react him and break his fall.

Fred and George dove towards Malfoy's fallen form while Flint lunge himself in front of the blond. Heidi kicked one of the Slytherin beaters who were trying to restrain her in the gut and flung the next one three feet away with a blasting hex, then she smashed her foot straight into Draco's stomach. Then she crouched down, grabbing the blond roughly by the collar and brought his face just inches from hers. The sound that came out of her mouth was anything but human; it sounded like a strange combination between Parseltongue and a wolf's low growl.

"_Don't think that being my sister's boyfriend gives you the right to insult my friends, 'cause you might not live to tell the tale_!" She roughly dumped Draco onto the ground after giving him one last nasty snarl and turned towards the rest of the students who were still engulfed in a confrontation of sorts.

"I think you might have chosen a bad day for practice Flint," Heidi called out to the Slytherin captain. "Three of your players are down." She pointed at the two beaters and Draco whose face was a bloody mess.

"You got bested by a GIRL?!" Flint screeched in outrage. "The three of you! You're useless," he shock his head truly disappointed then motioned for the other players to help him carry the wounded back to the castle. He came up towards Draco and briskly pulled him up with one hand and with the other he clutched a firm grip on Heidi's arm and pulled her towards him.

"Don't think this is over yet girly!" he snarled portentously.

"Bring it on, Flinty!" Heidi smirked malevolently at the troll of a boy and yanked her arm from his grip. They stood glaring reproachfully at one another for a full minute up until the other three Slytherins were ready to leave. Flint shot Heidi one last hateful glare then spun on his heals and dashed towards the castle with Draco trailing clumsily behind him.

"Heidi!" Hermione's bossy voice made the girl turn towards her.

"What?" she asked, looking confused at the angry face of her curly-haired friend.

"You didn't have to beat them up! What if they tell Dumbledore?" Hermione said looking critically at her.

"Yeah, right," Heidi snorted. "And admit they got beaten up by a girl, I don't think so," she waved a dismissive hand.

"They would if they can cause trouble for the Gryffindor team," Wood said angrily. "They could ban you from playing!" he added heatedly.

Heidi personally thought it would be worth getting banned if she got to beat Malfoy to a pulp, but she couldn't tell Wood that, now, could she? "Sorry captain," she apologized. "But I still think there's little chance of that happening. Now, are we gonna play some Quidditch or what?" she said with a mischievous grin spread on her pretty face as she mounted her broom and kicked off the ground.

"But Flint got permission from Snape!" protested Wood.

"But Flint and his team aren't fit to play! So, why waste a good training ground if a certain team is unable to play?" Heidi asked reasonably.

"She's right you know," Fred was quick to agree.

"Yeah, you woke us up at five in the bloody morning!" George protested.

"We can't let that go to waste!" Fred continued.

"Yeah, they have better brooms then us!" pointed out George.

"Come on Oliver! Its not like we're doing anything bad!" said Katy.

"Well, I suppose you're right," Wood admitted though a bit reluctant. He spent a good half-a-second pondering over the issue and then boomed in his commanding voice: "Ok team, move out!"

There was a cheer of approval as the Gryffindor team mounted their respective brooms and soared up into the sky, the Quaffle and Bluggers securely held in their hands.

"Herms, do you want a ride on my broom?" Heidi came hovering besides Hermione, an apologetic smile spread on her cute face.

"No, I'd much rather keep my feet on the ground, thank you very much," the girl replied in her usual bossy tone.

"Don't take what that git said to heart," Neville came up to her and placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

Hermione sighed and said in a sad tone: "Don't worry about me, I definitely know I'm worth more then that Malfoy prat; I'm rather worried about what Diana will do when she catches wind of this."

Heidi's face contorted into a sinister smile and the tone she used to speak the next words was anything but reassuring: "Don't worry; I'm sure he'll survive…probably."

------

If Draco thought that Heidi's punch had been hard, that was nothing compared to the beating and cursing Diana did when she caught up with him.

"How DARE YOU!" had been the only warning before the first spell had struck home, and lung Draco face first into the front wall. The next half an hour had been pure torture, and he wasn't then only casualty that had resulted from their breaking-up fight, (though he was among the worse). Pansy Parkinson, Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle, all ended up in the hospital wing, while trying to shield him from the raging hippogriff. Diana however, showed no mercy and thrashed the four Slytherins to a pulp while spitting insults their way all through the process, she only stopped because Snape forcefully tore her away from the scruffy kids and for once in his life he punished her.

"That's quite enough, young lady!" the Potions master growled and picked the still struggling girls up in his arms and brought her to his office.

"DETENTION! Sunday night, my office! And if you aggravate my students again, I _will _take this up to the Headmaster!" those had been the parting words that Snape and Diana shared before the red head stormed out of the office, looking positively murderous.

The detention turned out to be helping Lockhart answer his fan mail. Diana swore she'd kill Draco when she heard the news and kept cursing gracelessly all the way to Lockhart's office on the second floor. She gritted her teeth and banged on the door three times with her folded fist.

The door flew open at once and out stepped a beaming Lockhart, who lost his smile the moment he laid eyes on the fuming girl, though it magically reappeared in the next second.

"Ah, here's the scalawag!" he said. "Come in, Missis Potter, come in —"

The room was, unsurprisingly, cramped with pictures of Lockhart beaming broadly at himself, some were even signed, and more of them seemed to crowd his desk, where a single lid candle stood accompanied by a few quills and two bottles of ink.

"You can address the envelopes!" Lockhart told Diana, as though this was a huge treat.

"This first one's to Gladys Gudgeon, bless her — huge fan of mine —"

The hours actually flew by as Diana took absolutely no interest in the task at hand and spent most of her time cooking up gruesome ways in which Draco Malfoy would meat his perfectly-timed demise. Diana was actually using the anger towards the boy as an excuse to delay the unanticipated regret that she knew she'd feel because of the much too soon breakup. In fact, she was dreading the moment when she'd not have a reason to hate the boy and then stumble over the fact that she actually liked him. She really did! But as men put it, _bros-before-hoes_, and that rule applied to her too; plus it was his bloody fault that this whole ordeal took place! Yes, it was his fault! And she'd be alright hating him rather then crying because she lost one hell of a hot guy! Seriously, where was she gonna find someone like that again?!

She felt her eyes watering slightly at the thought and tried her hardest to contain her tear; after all, she didn't want Lockhart seeing her when she was so vulnerable. She needn't have bothered seeing as Lockhart was to preoccupied with some random fan and his never-ending rants rather then pay attention to her, so Diana turned her head away from him and discretely wiped at her slightly damp eyes.

Then a sudden whisper resounded in the room; a cold, blood thirsty voice that made her heart skip several beets.

"_Come… come to me… Let me rip you... Let me tear you... Let me kill you…_"

She frantically looked around, trying to identify the speaker, but there was no one in the room besides herself and Lockhart, who seemed unfazed by what the horrible voice had said.

"Excuse me, professor," Diana turned to Lockhart and said in a slightly trembling voice. "Did you hear something?" her eyes still kept wondering around the room looking madly for anything that could have produced that terrible voice, but she found nothing.

"Something?" asked Lockhart puzzled.

"A voice, just now, I heard a voice," Diana said.

"What are you talking about, my dear girl? Perhaps you're getting a little drowsy? Great Scott — look at the time! We've been here nearly four hours! I'd never have believed it — the time's flown, hasn't it?"

Diana didn't hear a word that came out of Lockhart's mouth as she was squinting her ears in hope of getting another glimpse of the voice she had early hear, and didn't even notice when Lockhart guided her towards the door up until it shut with a bang behind her.

Diana hastily made her way toward Gryffindor tower, anxiously looking around the corner and double checking that no one was following her.

Neville, Hermione and Heidi were the only people left in the common room, and neither seemed wide-awake. Neville was balled up on an armchair and drooling on one of the fluffy pillows, which was stuffed under his head, Heidi was spread on the couch with her head lying loosely in Hermione's lap who was dozing off, her head bowed in an awkward position.

"You didn't have to wait up for me," Diana said, but there was a grateful smile wide spread on her face.

"You would have cried like a baby if we hadn't," Heidi said in a sleep-filled tone.

"Well, I'm glad that you're awake, because I've got news for you," Diana said slipping on the couch next to her sister, Neville soon joined them and Diana launched into the story of what had happened in Lockhart's office.

"So, Lockhart didn't hear anything?" asked Neville slightly perplexed. Diana shuck her head.

"Hmm, I wonder if this has anything to do with the _bad things_ that were supposed to happen at Hogwarts?" mussed Heidi.

"Could be, but it could have also been a trick of the mind. You said that you were thinking about how to kill Draco," said Hermione reasonably.

"Honestly, I don't think that was my inner voice talking to me," Diana said stiffly.

"Well, as long as nothing happened, who cares," said Neville. "Let's worry about it in the morning when we're all up and going."

Hermione nodded sleepily.

"Alright," conceded Diana in a tired voice. The girls bid Neville good night and headed off to bed.

That night Diana dreamt about a frightening monster that was trying to rip Lockhart's head into tiny bits, and the bumbling idiot didn't seem to notice it. Not even when he was hoisted up into its mouth and swallowed hole did he give as much as a squeak of distress.

The monster took the shape of Severus Snape who was holding two cute puppies right above a boiling caldron. An evil sort of grin spared on his face as the puppies squirmed in his clutches. Diana was paralyzed with fear and kept begging Snape to let the puppies loose, but the dream-Snape just sneered un-compassionately at her and dropped the puppies into the bole of sweltering water.

A hand spread out and caught the puppies before they could hit the surface of the water and lowered them unscratched on the solid ground. Diana looked in daze as a handsome prince with golden hair and misty blue eyes defeated dream-Snape and came striding on his white-winged horse towards her and held out a hand. Diana rushed off with the prince to live happily ever after in his beautiful castle while Heidi was engulfed in on of her own dreams.

A dream about a dark and eerie forest in which a hooded figure was kissing her roughly and whispering possessively in her ear: "_Mine! You're mine_!"


	5. Chapter 5

Binns's speech is taken directly from the book.

**Chapter 5: Writing on the Wall**

Caught up between homework, Quidditch and coir rehearsal, the kids didn't even realize when September finally passed by, up until October decided to make its presence remarked with a vengeful-storm a few days before Halloween, right on one of those days when Heidi had Quidditch practice. So, naturally after a tiring training session with Wood, the girl was soaked to the bone, covered in mud and shivering like mad as she hastily made her way towards the castle's front oak doors. She rushed into the Great Hall and up the marble stairs, up until she accidentally walked straight through Nearly-Headless Nick.

"Hi Nick! What the hell are you doing sitting in the middle of the road so that anyone can walk through you, it's not that a pleasant sensation you know," said Heidi with a forced smile.

"Oh, sorry about that," apologized the ghost in a gloomy tone.

"You don't look to good," Heidi remarked, then wondered whether it was an insult to ask a ghost that; he _was_ dead after all, how much worse could he get?

"Ah," Nearly Headless Nick waved an elegant hand, "a matter of no importance… It's not as though I really wanted to join… Thought I'd apply, but apparently I _don't fulfill requirements_."

The tone he used was light, uninterested, but the look on his face told a different story.

"But you would think, wouldn't you," he erupted suddenly, pulling a letter out of his pocket, "that getting hit forty-five times in the neck with a blunt axe would qualify you to join the Headless Hunt?"

Heidi raised a delicate brow. "Nick, you're not headless," she pointed out, but that drew another angry growl from the ghost.

"So I've been told!" Nick said sharply.

Heidi sighed in frustration and tried to convince the ghost to drop the matter, she did_ not_ want a repeat of the unpleasant feeling she felt earlier, it made kissing Voldemort sound like a pleasant pastime.

"But Nick, if they don't want to let you join the Headless Hunt, I don't see why you have to be so grouchy about it," she raised a hand to stop the ghost's protest and carried on. "I mean, why humiliate yourself in trying to join a club that doesn't want you, when you cane make one of your own! One that will outrank the Headless Hunt! Think about it!" she said in a mischievous tone. "You might have them begging you to let them join _your_ club instead of the other way around. Eh, sounds nice, doesn't it?"

Nick's eyes lit up with a fire that he himself had thought to be long dead, and the more he turned the idea over in his mind, the more he liked the sound of it.

"By the Gods girl, that's brilliant," cried Nick in delight. "Yes, why should I be the one knocking on _Sir Properly Decapitated-Podmore's_ door, when I can have _him_ knocking at _my _door to join _my_ club?! Yes, yes, I'll build a club of my own!" Nick declared proudly.

"That's the spirit Nick!" Heidi nodded approvingly; after all, she knew better then anyone exactly how sweet the taste of revenge was. "So, what are you waiting fore? The club is not gonna build itself, now is it?!" she scolded while Nick nodded fervently and turned to leave. Then he seemed to remember something and zoomed back towards her.

"Would you like to come at my five hundredth death-day party?" asked Nick with a pleading look.

"You ghost celebrate death-day parties?" Heidi marveled.

"Yes, it's going to be held this Halloween, in one of the dungeons below. There will be quite a lot of the old crowd invite, if you want, you can bring your sister and friends along," Nick said hopefully.

"We'll be there!" Heidi nodded with enthusiasm. It wasn't every day when you got to witness a death-day party; she wouldn't miss it even if she had to drag her sister along.

"Splendid!" beamed the ghost as he clapped his hands happily. "I will be sending you an invitation in a few days. Have a pleasant day!" the ghost bowed and drifted away.

Heidi smiled cheerily and was about to turn around and climb up the stairs when a silent _meow_ drew her attention towards her feat. There, standing like a statue set on a high stand, looking as brazen as ever, with her yellow slides burning a hole in her head, was non other then Missis Norris, Filch the caretaker's cat.

"Hello there you," Heidi bent down and patted the cat on the head. Normally, most of the students hated Filch and his cat because they always seemed to pop up when children were causing trouble, and the two were second only to Snape for the number of detentions that the students landed in. Fortunately for her, her sister, Diana, had an unhealthy obsession with animals and so had befriended Missis Norris in her first year, and therefore had managed to land herself in Filch's good grace.

"Heidi!" Filch's voice made the green eyed girl jump out of her skin. "Quick, get out of here! That Malfoy kid is coming up the stairs and I want to have a good enough excuse to put him to work!"

The fact that he liked Diana, automatically meant that he disliked anyone who dared to hurt the girl, and everybody in the school had heard of the red head and Draco's violent breakup, which automatically put Malfoy in a very bad position with Filch.

"Sorry for the mess," Heidi apologized as she pulled herself to her feat and hurried up the stairs.

"Make sure to clean your feet next time!" Filch shouted after her. Heidi bolted up the stairs, and a few moments later she heard Filch's yells and Malfoy's protest and couldn't help it as a satisfied smirk made its way across her face. Yes, revenge was sweet. *snigger*

"A death-day party?" Hermione sounded excited while Neville looked thoughtful at the idea while Diana, as per expected, showed no interest in the subject.

"I can't go," her sister blurred out.

"What? Why?" Heidi asked annoyed.

"I'm part of the coir genius, and we've been preparing for Halloween for two months!" Diana pointed out. "I'm not gonna waste two months of practice and hard work on a party for the dead! What? Think you'll find anything interesting there?"

"No! I just want to see how ghosts celebrate, and besides, I gave my word I'll go."

"So, you're not coming to see me sing?" Diana asked offended.

"Don't worry," Heidi waved her concerns aside. "I'll stay for about five minutes and then I'm coming back to the feast."

Hermione wasn't pleased with the arrangements, but was overruled, as Neville didn't want to miss the Halloween feat, nor Diana's singing, and after the red head gave her one of those famous hurt-puppy looks, she ended up agreeing with the other two.

So, here they were, on a Friday night, in front of the great hall where thousands of students were chattering happily, enjoying the festive decorations and delicious food. Diana sent a pleading look their way, while Lavender and Parvati were sitting in the doorway waiting for the red head.

"Haven't you changed your minds yet?" asked Diana.

"We'll only be gone for like five minutes!" snapped Heidi, "if you'd let us leave!"

"Then leave!" growled Diana furiously, and so, she spun on her heals and marched pass her two friends.

Heidi rolled her eyes at her sister's childish behavior and made her way towards the dungeons alongside Neville and Hermione. There was a morbid line of candles wrapped in black ribbons, an ear-throbbing sound resounded throughout the place and the temperature lowered in degree as they closed in on the room where Nick had said his party was held.

Nearly-Headless Nick was standing boastfully in front of the door, all dressed up in black velvet drapes.

"My dear friends," he said mournfully. "Welcome, welcome… so pleased you could come…" he bowed as they entered.

It was… cold, what with so many ghosts gathered in one place, and nothing interesting seemed to be happening around. There were a few white packs of smoke-like people dancing here and there to the rhythm of a horrible sound that didn't resemble music in the slightest, there were some headless-horsemen playing golf with their head while riding ghost horses in one corner, in fact, the only interesting thing in the whole place was Peeves the Poltergeist.

Heidi had a sudden urge to go and hex the living…death out of the ghost, but Neville and Hermione dragged her as far away from the blue little man as they could.

"We're not here to ruin the party!" Hermione chastised.

"Oh, please, no one like's Peeves, if anything I'd be doing the ghosts here a favor!" Heidi countered, but followed her anyway.

"How much longer till we go?" asked Neville through clenched teeth, he was shivering from head to toe and holding onto his plover like a life saver, though it didn't seem to be doing much good.

"We can go now!" Heidi prompted. "Nick's left the door!"

Neville nodded fervently and the three kids ran out of the door, up the dungeon steps and into the great hall, where they stood gaping at the sight of it for several minutes.

The ceiling was flooded with thousands of living bats, which were flying hazardly above the candle flames; the four grand tables had been replaced with house-sized pumpkins, which were cut in the traditional Halloween way (the mouth was big enough to be confused with the entrance to a horror house), and about ten or so candles were floating merely around the pumpkin's eyes, giving it the impression that it had pupils. Dancing skeletons were rooming around the place, popping up their heads through one of the pumpkin's large eyes and scaring the children on the inside, and let's not forget the mouthwatering aroma that was coming from the great hall.

"Wow," Neville marveled. "We were going to miss _this_ for Old Nick?" he asked sarcastically.

"There you are!" Diana came skidding towards then and rushed them off to where Lavender and Parvati were sitting - inside a giant house right in the center of the crowd.

"Hey, finally decided to join the party," Parvati greeted.

"How's Nick?" asked Lavender.

"You know, still dead," answered Heidi. "So, why are we sitting so upfront?"

"Because the Hufflepuff hottie is sitting right over there," Lavender sighed, looking through the giant eyes of the pumpkin.

"The what, now?" asked Heidi and turned to follow the other girl's gaze.

Sitting in the gigantic pumpkin on the other side, right in front of the colossal diamond shaped eye, was probably the most handsome boy Heidi had ever laid eyes on. He had light-brown hair, dazzling grey eyes and a smile that could put Lockhart to shame any day.

"Isn't he dreamy!" exclaimed Parvati.

"Who is he?" asked Hermione curiously.

"Cedric Diggory," answered Parvati and Lavender in coir.

"He's cute," agreed Diana, "and single," she grinned widely.

Heidi turned her head to look at the boy in aw. Cedric Diggory was…probably the most attractive person she had ever seen, how come he was singly? She didn't know exactly how long she had been gawking at Diggory, just admiring his defined jaw, his gorgeous eyes and brilliant smile, but when she did come to herself, it was only because Diana snuggled close to her and whispered "You like him," in that annoyingly teasing voice of hers.

"No! I don't," Heidi turned to scowl at her sister.

"Aw, come on, give it up already! You've been ogling him for hours!"

"No I haven't!"

"Yes you have! And I never once doubted that you have good tastes when it comes to men, unlike my curly haired friend who likes two dunderheads," Diana turned to glare at Hermione who was chatting silently with Neville about something. Heidi noticed that Lavender and Parvati where nowhere to be seen.

"Where are your two loud friends?" Diana glowered at the nickname and pointed towards the pumpkin on the left in which Ron and his gang were seated.

"They wanted to take Mione with them, but I didn't let them," Diana said and turned to talk with Hermione and Neville.

Heidi, for one, didn't actually consider Weasley such a bad person like her sister always deemed him, but she too didn't like the idea of him dating her friend; especially after being such an ass to her in first year. No, he had a little bit more amending left to do before she would consider letting him close to her friend.

Heidi soon got bored with studying the Weasley pumpkin and turned her head towards the other direction in which the handsome boy was, and came face to face with his piercing grey eyes. The boy shot a dazzling smile at the sight of her while Heidi blushed furiously and lowered her eyes down towards her shoos.

_Wait a second! What am I doing_? She thought confused. Seriously she did not understand why she had done that! After all, _he_ was the one who was caught looking at _her_ (though she was about to do the same thing, but that was a minor technicality), shouldn't he be the one looking away in shame?!

Heidi lifted her head to take a quick peek at Diggory and saw to her surprise that he was still looking at her, more intently now. She turned a questioned look in his direction and the boy just gave her a warm smile and lifted his goblet towards her. Heidi, still looking baffled, smiled slightly and raised her own goblet towards him.

_What, now we are having a long distance toast_? She gave a silent laugh at the idea and turned to smile at Diggory who was trying to say something, but Heidi didn't understand one word.

She shock her head and pointed to her ear, hoping the boy would understand that she couldn't hear him. They boy's face fell into a pout as he gave her a sad look. Then an idea seemed to pop up in his mind, because he started gesturing at her while mouthing the words more slowly. He pointed at himself first, and Heidi clearly understood the word "I", then he proceeded to form the letters L-I-K-E with his fingers, then he pointed at her, and then at his eyes. And he mouthed it again, more slowly, and this time, Heidi understood every word: _I like your eyes_.

She flushed slightly and looked away embarrassed. _Dang_! Why did she always do that? She was not letting this boy have the upper hand on her!

Heidi turned back to smile curtly at him and mouthed the words _thank you _which he accepted with a brief nod and a dazzling smile.

Lavender and Parvati came back and seated themselves by the pumpkin's eyes to get a better view of Diggory. Heidi didn't actually know if she should be grateful or mad, but a strange sort of emotion washed over her as Diggory turned his head around when the other two girls started goggling at him, and for some reason she was smiling.

"Isn't he dreamy," sighed Lavender.

"I wish he'd turned those gorgeous eyes in my direction, if only for a second," said Parvati.

Yep, Heidi was definitely feeling smug.

"Com on you two! Let's eat," she prompted hoping to get the two fangirls away from Diggory.

The feast didn't pose much of an entertainment after that; the girls ate while Lavender and Parvati told Diana that Dean Thomas liked her (something she already knew), and then the two started ogling Diggory again and commenting on how dreamy he was, up until the feast ended. Diggory never once bothered to look in their direction.

As soon as the feast ended the five were among the first to leave, with Ron's group bringing up the front, followed closely by a group of Ravenclaws, among whom stood Parvati's sister, Padma.

"Padma, did you see Diggory?" asked Parvati when she laid eyes on her twin. Something told Heidi that the Hufflepuff boy was not going to leave the girls' minds anytime soon.

Padma turned her head to answer her sister, and because of those few moments of aloofness, she knocked straight into Ron.

"Hey! What gives?" Padma asked indignantly.

"Are you okay sis?" Parvati was quick to come to her aid.

"I'm fine. Weasley! Mind moving out of the way!" Padma snapped.

Ron did as he was told and let the two girls up front. The Patil twins gave an unladylike gasp the moment they saw what was in front.

"What? What's all this commotion about," Diana pushed her way to the front of the line. There scribbled on a wall between two windows, stood a sinister looking message that seemed to have been written in blood (or something similar):

THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED.

ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE

And sitting right underneath it was…

A piercing scream which echoed off the wall tore from Diana's throat at the sight of the stiff cat, hanging upside-down.

"Missis Norris," she sobbed, hand's clapped over her mouth and eyes widened with tears threatening to break loose as she gazed upon the grisly scene.

"What's going on here? What's going on?"

Argus Filch came shouldering his way through the crowd, no doubt attracted by Diana's scream. Then he saw Missis Norris and fell back clutching his face in horror.

"My cat! My cat! What's happened to Mrs. Norris?" he shrieked. "My cat," he sobbed heartbreakingly. Diana was at his side instantly.

"Mister Filch-"

"They killed my cat! They killed my cat, Diana! They killed her!" he boomed pointing at the masses of students gathered in the hall. "I'll kill you!" he shouted and made to grab one of the students but a commanding voice made him stop in his tracks.

"_Argus_!"

Dumbledore had arrived at the scene, with a few of the staff members trailing slightly behind him. In seconds, he had swept past Diana and Filch and detached Mrs. Norris from the torch bracket.

"Come with me, Argus," he said to Filch.

"My office is nearest, Headmaster," interjected Lockhart. "Just upstairs; please feel free —"

"Thank you, Gilderoy," said Dumbledore.

The silent crowd parted to let them pass. Lockhart, looking excited and important, hurried after Dumbledore; so did Professors McGonagall and Snape while Filch brought up the rear, sustained slightly by Diana.

Heidi sighed and strolled after the pair, while Hermione and Neville trailed silently behind her.

They entered Lockhart's office, a place which wasn't dear to any of the four kids, and Dumbledore sat the cat up on Lockhart's desk and began examining her. Diana gently guided Filch to a chair and helped him lay down while she sank in the one beside him.

"It'll be okay, mister Filch, Dumbledore will fix this," Diana assured.

Heidi, Neville and Hermione, awkwardly sat themselves next to them, feeling nothing less then unwanted visitors interrupting a private mourning ritual. The three watched as Dumbledore and McGonagall studied the stiff car, which in Heidi's opinion looked deader then Nearly-Headless Nick had ever looked throughout all the times she had seen him, though she hoped that it wasn't true, if only to stop Diana's and Filch's anguished sobs.

Lockhart, as per always, began ranting about random hexes and curses he had seen and boasting about the fact that his presence alone would have been enough to save the poor dead animal, much to everyone's disgust since Filch started weeping harder. Diana sent him such a hateful look, that the narcissistic Professor glued him mouth shut at once.

After what seemed like forever, Dumbledore finally lifted his head from the cat's stiff form and turned to speak to Filch in a kind voice.

"She's not dead, Argus."

Diana's head shot up at the words, a hopeful expression replacing the distressed one.

"Not dead?" choked Filch, shooting a confused look at Mrs. Norris. "But why's she all — all stiff and frozen?"

"She has been Petrified," said Dumbledore. "But how, I cannot say."

"Those vile little pests did it!" shrieked Filch. "They hate her! They wanted to kill her!"

"No student could have done this," said Dumbledore firmly. "It would take Dark Magic of the most advanced —"

"They did it! They did it!" Filch was uncontrollably howling now, a mad expression on his face.

"Argus!" Dumbledore silenced the man with a glare. "The students do not posses the mental capacity nor the magical one to do such a deed!"

"My cat has been Petrified!" Filch shrieked, his eyes popping. "I want to see some _punishment_!"

"We will be able to cure her, Argus," said Dumbledore patiently. "Professor Sprout recently managed to procure some Mandrakes. As soon as they have reached their full size, I will have a potion made that will revive Mrs. Norris."

"I'll make it," Lockhart butted in.

"No you won't!" snapped Diana.

"Excuse me," said Snape icily. "But I believe I am the Potions master at this school."

There was a very awkward pause.

"You may go," Dumbledore said to the children.

"Are you gonna be okay, mister Flinch?" asked Diana concerned.

Flinch smiled a rare smile and nodded mutely.

"See you tomorrow," Diana said and headed for the door, the other three walked silently behind her.

That night, for the first time since kindergarten, Diana slept in Heidi's bed. And as though her sister's tormented sobs weren't enough, Voldemort too looked angry in her dream. He actually bit down hard on her lip and the next morning when Heidi woke, she found her bottom lip bleeding, something which unnerved her throughout the entire day.

Filch became unbearable for the next couple of weeks and spent most of his time guarding the corridor on which the sinister writing was. Diana would come to keep him company from time to time, and when he didn't patrol the corridors, he had a gloomy expression on his face to rival Nearly-Headless Nick, and would pass out detention to students, like Snape gave points to the Slytherins in class.

Diana too, was moody and started ignoring school for the first week or so after the attack. She would spend most of her time at Hagrid's or with Filch and sometimes didn't even come to classes, something which earned her a talking-to from McGonagall.

Hermione had become more of a book-addict then she ever was before and spent most of her day in the library. The girls found out one day that what she was actually doing was searching for a copy of Hogwarts a History so she could read about the Chamber of Secrets.

"Why didn't you ask me?" Heidi inquired looking strangely at her. "You know I have a copy, right?"

"Will you _please_ lend it to me!" Hermione implored.

"Sure," Heidi nodded. "Right after we get back from Binns' class."

"Sis, did we have homework?" asked Diana in a panicked voice.

"Don't worry dunderhead, I wrote your essay as well," Heidi said looking critical at her sister. Hermione shot Heidi a disapproving glare, but didn't comment.

Binns's class was as boring as ever. It was one of those classes for which Diana thanked the gods that she had bought a self-writing quill, because she was always among the first to doze off when the teacher opened his mouth and started droning on and on about goblin rebellions and the like. Truth be told, Diana couldn't actually remember how exactly was it that she passed the first years final in History of Magic and didn't even want to.

About half an-hour into the lecture, when a deep stupor had settled across the student body, Hermione decided to interrupt the professor's uninteresting ramble about some rebellion or another by raising her hand. Binns looked shell-shocked.

"Miss — er —?"

"Granger, Professor. I was wondering if you could tell us anything about the Chamber of Secrets," said Hermione in a clear voice.

Diana woke up with a start as Lavender's head, which had been seated on Diana's shoulder, shot up in curiosity. Neville nearly slipped under the table, while Heidi turned to look quizzically at her bushy haired friend. Professor Binns blinked.

"My subject is History of Magic," he said in his dry, wheezy voice. "I deal with facts, Miss Granger, not myths and legends." He cleared his throat with a small noise like chalk slipping and continued, "In September of that year, a subcommittee of Sardinian sorcerers —"

Diana was about to resume her early interrupted afternoon-nap, when she heard Binns say:

"Miss Grant?"

Then Hermione say:

"Please, sir, don't legends always have a basis in fact?"

"Well," said Professor Binns slowly, "yes, one could argue that, I suppose." He peered at Hermione as though he had never seen a student properly before. "However, the legend of which you speak is such a very sensational, even ludicrous tale —"

Diana sat up properly in her chair, her full attention turned towards Binns, as was that of every other student in the class. Binns looked overwhelmed by the amount of interest his persona was being subjugated to.

"Oh, very well," he said slowly. "Let me see… the Chamber of Secrets…"

"You all know, of course, that Hogwarts was founded over a thousand years ago — the precise date is uncertain — by the four greatest witches and wizards of the age. The four school Houses are named after them: Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Salazar Slytherin. They built this castle together, far from prying Muggle eyes, for it was an age when magic was feared by common people, and witches and wizards suffered much persecution."

"For a few years, the founders worked in harmony together, seeking out youngsters who showed signs of magic and bringing them to the castle to be educated. But then disagreements sprang up between them. A rift began to grow between Slytherin and the others. Slytherin wished to be more selective about the students admitted to Hogwarts. He believed that magical learning should be kept within all-magic families. He disliked taking students of Muggle parentage, believing them to be untrustworthy. After a while, there was a serious argument on the subject between Slytherin and Gryffindor, and Slytherin left the school."

"Reliable historical sources tell us this much," he said. "But these honest facts have been obscured by the fanciful legend of the Chamber of Secrets. The story goes that Slytherin had built a hidden chamber in the castle, of which the other founders knew nothing.

"Slytherin, according to the legend, sealed the Chamber of Secrets so that none would be able to open it until his own true heir arrived at the school. The heir alone would be able to unseal the Chamber of Secrets, unleash the horror within, and use it to purge the school of all who were unworthy to study magic."

Silence accompanied the end of Binns's speech. Every student waited, anxiously for the professor to resume talking and reveal more about the subject that had retained their interest for the past week. Unfortunately Binns did not say anything more related to the subject for the rest of the class, not even when Hermione persisted with her questions, did Binns do much more then dismiss the whole thing off as some _nonsense told to frighten little kids_.

"Do you really think there's a Chamber of Secrete?" asked Diana after class in a drowsy voice.

"It's Hogwarts you're talking about. If Voldemort get's to make an appearance while stuck on the back of someone's head, would it really surprise you that a chamber exists that no on knows about?" Heidi stated simply.

"I seriously don't know what to think," Hermione mussed. "I want to see what _Hogwarts a History_ has to say about this."

"Neville do you know anything?" asked Diana.

"No, I can't say I do. I'll try asking my Granny about it, maybe she knows something," he promised.

"Pf, I read the _Hogwarts a History_ paragraph referring to the Chamber of Secrets," Heidi said annoyed.

"You HAVE?!" both Hermione and Diana boomed at her.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Hermione asked disbelieved.

"Because there's nothing interesting in it," Heidi assured. "It's mentioned that the chamber was supposedly opened fifty years ago and the culprit was already caught and punished, but there's no information with regards on who exactly opened the chamber, or any mention of the room itself. If you ask me, it sounds like a whole lot of fairytales."

"But that's important!" protested Hermione. "The fact that the chamber has been opened before, is important! It practically proves that it exists!"

"No it doesn't!" Heidi countered, "Because Hogwarts a History does not refer to the incident as _The Chamber of Secrets_ but as the mysterious attacks! There is a separate paragraph regarding the chamber of secrets, where it is specifically stated that the school had been thoroughly searched a number of times and no such place has ever been found!"

"But maybe you need to be related to Salazar Slytherin in order to find it," argued Neville.

"What for?" asked Heidi in a disbelieved tone. "What good would it do if you were rela-" she stopped mid sentence, something between shock and puzzlement made its way across her face. "Unless," she said still deep in thought.

"Unless?" asked the other three kids.

"Unless you're a Parselmouth!" Heidi exclaimed.

"A, what now?" asked Diana perplexed.

"A Parselmouth! Someone who can speak to snakes! Salazar Slytherin was famous for that trait. There was a whole page in which they blabbed on and on about his ability to talk to snakes and his familiar…snake (I forgot its name). They said he could perform spells while speaking in Parselmouth and therefore, never bothered to learn how to cast them nonverbally, since no one could understand him anyways, and he was rumored to be the only Parselmouth in existence," Heidi explained.

"He could talk to snakes?" Diana said in aw. "Wow! I wish I could speak to snakes."

"Actually that's a trait that only dark wizards are rumored to posses," Neville told her.

"But it all adds up!" cried Hermione excited. "Don't you see! It all makes sense!"

"What makes sense?" asked Neville befuddled.

"Not really," said Heidi. "While I do admit that a chamber which could be opened only by a Parselmouth would indeed fit the description that Binns gave us, there was no mention in Hogwarts a History that Slytherin ever used Parselmouth in such a way. As far as the book's concerned, he only used it to talk to snakes and as means to replace nonverbal spells, because, apparently, nonverbal spells are weaker then verbal ones."

"Honestly Heidi, do you think Slytherin would tell the other founders everything he could and couldn't do in Parselmouth?" countered Hermione.

"No, but I'd still think it's stupid to built a chamber that can only be activated by Parselmouth!" Heidi insisted. "For one, it would indeed stay hidden from the other founders, but doesn't that apply to the heir as well? He'd have to spend all his free time hissing around the castle and hoping that he'd somehow, by some twisted miracle, manages to find the stupid door, and let's not forget that Hogwarts _is_ a big place, hide it in one of its secret passageways and you're bound to not find it again."

"What if the location was passed down from generation to generation?" Neville persisted.

"That could work," Heidi begrudgingly agreed.

"But who could be the heir?" asked Hermione.

"I know who!" Diana said. "Draco Malfoy! His family has been in Slytherin for decades! He's the most suspicious of the lot."

"Diana, just because you hate the boy now, doesn't automatically mean he's a bad guy!" Heidi chastised.

"I'll have to agree with her on this one," said Hermione. "He _is_ the most suspicious of the lot!"

"He dated a half-blood!" Heidi snapped. "He came in our house, a _Muggle's_ house, and shock hands with _Muggles_ and _Half-Bloods_! You can't seriously say he's prejudicial!"

"He called Hermione a Mudblood!" Diana protested. "He _is_ prejudicial!"

The argument didn't stop for most of the day. Neville, Hermione and Diana were convinced that Draco Malfoy was the Heir of Slytherin. Diana was mostly saying so just so she could have another reason to hate the blond boy, while Neville and Hermione were being more reasonable with their choice by blaming it all on his family history.

Heidi still though it was a stupid idea to built a camber that could only open if you spoke Parselmouth and kept sustaining her point, though there was a cruel way in which Voldemort smile the following night when she told him her suspicions that made her doubt her choice… and her sanity for believing that a dreamed up figure could actually talk to her.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6: Hogwarts War Zone**

Halfway into November, the weather was looking remarkably peaceful and the Quidditch season was in full bloom. The fans were cheering loudly and wishing their supported teams luck as the long awaited match between Slytherin and Gryffindor finally came knocking on their doors. Wood had been training his team like slaves, while Flint seemed unfazed by the upcoming match. Heidi, for one, couldn't wait to wipe the smirk off his face; she was determined to knock him off his broom, even if she had to resort to playing dirty while Dumbledore was watching.

That night she couldn't sleep much, what with the pre-excitement rushing through her veins and Lord bloody Voldemort haunting her dreams, sleep just didn't seem as appealing as it once used to be. Heidi rose from her bed and took to walking around the empty corridors, remembering the calm feeling that it had brought her the previous year on a day not so unlike this. She wished that Dumbledore would have at least told them what he did with the mirror, and that brought her another nostalgic feeling. She remembered that what she wanted the most was to fly freely up in the sky, in other terms: she wanted to play Quidditch. Though she hadn't realized it then, but now that she thought about it, leaving the ridiculousness of the whole thing aside, she actually liked that stupid game! And _that_ was why she wanted to kick Flint's ass in the upcoming game, if only to teach him that a troll on a fast broom is still a troll! And as they say, the faster you are, the quicker you fall! *snigger*

When the next morning came, Heidi was one of the last to get to breakfast. Diana had to splat a whole bucket of water on her head to get the other girl up and at 'em, and by then it was already 9:30. Wood shot her a disapproving look when she entered the great hall, but Heidi didn't see it, as she scanned the Slytherin table for Flint and shot a nasty smirk his way before taking her usual seat alongside Hermione, Diana and Neville.

The weather didn't look as bright as it had the previous morning, some students were even debating on whether it was going to rain or not. Heidi hoped it wouldn't, she didn't like the idea of having her freshly washed hair drenched with dirty water.

Wood welcomed them with a pep talk that in Heidi's opinion was not that much inspiring as it was pitiable. It sounded suspiciously like the other boy was trying to convince himself that they would win rather then his team. And the last line with "Get the Snitch or die trying," did not have the slightest effect on Heidi.

When they finally emerged onto the Quidditch field, they were greeted with a roar of cheers mixed with some boos here and there, mainly coming from the Slytherin team, because it seemed that Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw were just about as eager to see Slytherin lose as McGonagall was to see that huge smirk whipped off Snape's face. Then there came the childish game of who could do more damage to the hand of the other team captain, which Wood and Flint always seemed to like displaying when they were told to _shake hands_ by Madam Hooch.

Then finally, with an uproar mixed with boos and hisses and cheers from the crowd accompanied by the ear-damaging whistle from Madam Hooch, they were off.

Heidi shot upwards like a bullet and came to an abrupt halt, squinting her eyes to determine Flint's position, the bastard was definitely gonna learn the downs of his amazing broom by the end of this match.

"Alright there babe," Malfoy swished pass her at neck breaking speed and shot a mock kiss towards her general direction.

Heidi decided that Flint was going to get his ass handed to him by the Weasley twins, (if the way they were manically beating around those berserk Bludgers was anything to go by), and stirred her broom towards the annoying prick of a blonde, who was soaring pompously around the Quidditch field.

Her plans were rudely interrupted by a Bludger which came pelting toward her. Heidi narrowly missed getting hit.

"Fred, watch it!" Heidi scolded.

"It's George," said the Weasley twin who soared past her and headed for the berserker ball, kicking it hard towards a Slytherin player. Unfortunately, the Bludger stopped mid air and shot back towards Heidi.

Heidi dove quickly to avoid it, while George came rushing pass her and slammed it in Malfoy's direction. The Bludger, again, dove after Heidi.

Heidi sped up in Fred's direction, hoping that the demented ball would attack someone else, but it didn't, it stayed firm on Heidi's tail. Not even when Fred hit it hard in the reverse direction did it do more then go a few feet, then turn back and rocket towards her.

_A jinxed Bludger_? Heidi ginned nastily as she thought of all the possibilities that would bring.

"Fred! Leave that one to me!" she shouted after him and, not waiting for a reply, she zoomed off in search for Malfoy, hearing the heavy object still trailing behind her.

It started raining, much to her displeasure, and the heavy drops splashed onto her face, damping her hair and meddling with her ears, but she still heard it loud and clear when Lee Jordan say that Slytherin was leading sixty to null. It was about time she found that Flint bastard and took him out of the game.

She dove below to avoid another vicious attack from the deranged ball and caught sight of her least favorite Quidditch player, rocketing towards Wood, Quaffle held firm in his grasp and stirred her broom towards him, the demented ball still hung on her tail.

Flint carelessly threw the ball right at the far left hoop and sneered arrogantly when he saw that Wood had jumped for the wrong hoop. Wood desperately tried to redirect his broom towards the other side, but unfortunately for him, a vicious wind blew straight at him and made him sore slightly to the right.

Flint was howling by now and so, didn't hear Heidi approaching up until she was within inches of him. The Nimbus-two-thousand-and-one's speed, however, proved to be genuine, as Flint hastily dove to the right, managing to avoid Heidi and the Bludger entirely. Heidi sped up towards the left goal post and grabbed the Quaffle before it could enter, then she flipped the broom over in mid air, forcing it to climb upwards as it did and narrowly avoided getting hit by the Bludger which shot straight through the goal-post.

Heidi turned her broom around, with a quick glimpse in the Bludger's direction and shot off towards Angelina Johnson. "Catch!" she threw the Quaffle at her.

Heidi zigzagged around Angelina for a while, and then shot off in front of her when she saw Pucey coming towards them at neck breaking speed. She sped up towards him and at the last moment she pointed her broom upwards, leaving the Bludger and the Slytherin chaser to collide painfully. Pucey gave a cry of pain and fell of his broom while Angelina shot up towards the goal post and scored the first goal for Gryffindor.

Flint was furious. He rocketed towards his beater, seized the club out of his hand and shot a Bludger straight at Heidi's head. Heidi ducked the upcoming demented ball, and the two Bludgers collided with on another making such a racket, that most thought it had started to thunder.

The jinxed Bludger, however, recovered fast and resumed its pursuit of Heidi. Flint shouted something at his beater then went rocketing towards Angelina, club still firmly held in his grip.

Heidi stormed towards him determined to take him out this time, when she saw Malfoy zooming around the pitch, his eyes glued to a point somewhere near the ground. Heidi realized, to her disdain, that it was the Snitch he was chasing after and pushed Flint to the back of her head as she darted towards the blond at neck breaking speed. Malfoy's broom was faster however and on top of that, he was nearer then her. The blond stuck out his arm, ready to catch the tiny ball, when it made a sudden move towards the right and disappeared beneath the stage.

Heidi wasted no time in diving after the minuscule ball, while Malfoy had to swing out of the way as the rogue Bludger rocketed pas him. The blond then dove after Heidi and in a matter of seconds he had outraced the Bludger and caught up with her.

"Looks like someone's got it in for you," he taunted, with a sly grin.

"I wonder who that is," Heidi asked sarcastically and dove to avoid an upcoming plate of wood. Draco would have certainly knocked face first into it, had he been riding any other broom then his own, but the Nimbus, once again, proved its worth as it steered upwards just in time to lead its owner up and out of danger's way.

Heidi cursed, realizing that the Snitch had disappeared again and shot after the blond, determined to at least get him out of the way. Malfoy stopped in mid-air and squinted his eyes in a vain attempt at locating the Snitch throughout all the rain and fuss, but it was nowhere in sight.

He cursed and resumed soaring around the pitch, but had to dive quickly as Heidi came charging towards him, the rogue Bludger firmly in toe. The girl turned, a spectacular 180 and shot towards the mildly impressed boy. Malfoy snapped out of his stupor at the sight of the girl and stormed in the opposite direction.

Heidi cursed when she realized that she wasn't going to catch up to the blond anytime soon and decided to try a different approach. She shot off in a random direction, pretending that she had spotted the Snitch and, as per expected, the blond charged towards her at full speed. Heidi smirked and waited until the boy was near enough. She suddenly pulled the broom up towards the sky, Bludger still in toe, and turned it back heading for the ground which she went hurtling towards at full speed, right pass Malfoy. The blond was too surprised to even process what had just happened, let along pull the broom from the Bludger's trajectory, so the demented ball crashed straight into the back of his broom, smothering it to pieces and sending Malfoy flying towards the teacher's stand.

Flint was quick to come to his rescue while screaming "Foul" the whole way. Heidi sent him a triumphant smile when Madam Hooch said that it wasn't considered a foul. Flint shoved Malfoy Pucey's broom and took possession of the Quaffle.

Malfoy turned his angry eyes at her and rocketed in her direction. Within seconds, he was standing before her.

"You won't get away with this Potter," he hissed threateningly.

"Get away with what?" Heidi asked sweetly.

Heidi chose to ignore him for now and concentrate on getting Flint off the field. Unfortunately, the blond took to trailing behind her, a few strides away from the Bludger. Heidi shot the boy a reproachful glare, which he met head on, and hasted towards Flint, a plan slowly began forming in her head. She smirked.

"Come and get me, Malfoy," she taunted and dove for the ground. Malfoy bustled after her like a deranged bull. Heidi continued her descend towards the ground at full speed, with Malfoy straight on her tail, and only when she was a few inches from the ground did she turn in a swift motion and let Malfoy crash head first into the muddy surface.

"You just got served," Heidi stuck out her tongue at him and resumed her pursuit of Flint. The oversized troll of a boy was flying madly towards Wood, the Quaffle was currently in the hands of his other Chaser, Graham Montague, but there was no doubt in Heidi's mind that the boy would pass the ball off to Flint when they reached the goal post.

Heidi zoomed towards him, the Bludger still flying madly after her, and rocketed upwards, cutting him off in midflight. Flint, momentarily disoriented thanks to Heidi's earlier stunt, sat in the same position for a second too long, and therefore, the Bludger, which had been chasing after the girl, slammed hard in his ass (talk about testicular-trauma), sending him flying. The boy was unconscious when his Beater, Peregrine Derrick caught him.

Malfoy whisked forward like and enraged hippogriff.

"You've gone too far Potter!" he roared. But Heidi didn't hear him; she had caught sight of the Snitch flying not far from where she was. Heidi stormed towards the tiny golden ball at top speed with Malfoy and the Bludger hot on her tail.

The Slytherin Chaser, as per expected, threw the Quaffle towards where Flint was supposed to have been, and was unpleasantly surprised to hear Alicia Spinnet thank him before she swooped towards the goal posts with Katy Bell at her side.

Alicia threw the Quaffle towards the goal post while Miles Bletchley lung himself at it, but a well aimed Bludger shot from Fred Weasley prevented him from catching it and Lee Jordan shouted "GOAL!!!" as Heidi closed her hand around the Snitch. She lifted it high into the air while dodging another ferocious attack from the Bludger and Lee shouted again, announcing the victory of Gryffindor 170 to 80.

The Bludger ricocheted back for another attack, but the Weasley twins came clashing down on it and clubbed the Bludger away from her and towards Madam Hooch, who restrained it with magic and took to examine it.

Wood enveloped Heidi in a boon crushing hug and kissed her on the cheek while Alicia and Katy came rushing down and lung themselves at the pair. Fred and George soon joined the party and that's when Heidi noted that Angelina was nowhere to be seen.

"Where's Angelina?" Heidi asked perplexed.

"Flint took her out, that son of a…" Fred told her, his previous good mood diminishing rapidly.

Heidi and the other members of the team wasted no time in heading for the hospital wing.

Angelina Johnson was in a terrible state. Flint had, apparently, slammed a Bludger straight into her head and sent her falling down thirty feet. She had broken more then a few bones, and was suffering from internal bleeding. Madam Pomfrey rushed them out the door, shouting that she still needed to mend some of the girl's injuries. Heidi couldn't help feeling that the rogue Bludger shoved up his ass was not punishment enough for Flint as she remembered Angelina's broken form lying motionless on the hospital bed.

The Gryffindor team waited anxiously at the door of the hospital wing. Fred was pacing mad while George was trying to calm him down. Alicia and Katy were lying against the wall, whispering silently, while Heidi was crouched down on her kneed, rocking back and fort; Wood was resting against the wall, a few inches to her left.

Heidi felt a sudden chill run over her, and then she realized that she hadn't had time to change out of her damp Quidditch robes. She sneezed.

"Let me dry those up for you," offered Wood. Heidi nodded gratefully and stood up. "Siccus Induviae," he chanted and Heidi felt her clothes begin to warn up, until they were left completely dry.

"Thanks," she smiled gratefully. "You have got to teach me that one."

"It's not that hard," Wood assured. "My mother taught it to me over the summer. I once stayed out for too long, practicing moves for the Quidditch plans I made and a storm caught me, and I just had to practice that move again."

Heidi smiled slightly. "So you wanna become a professional Quidditch player?"

"Yes, I think I'd like that," he answered. "I'd like to one day be able to stand on the same pitch as Victor Krum or Barry Ryan as an equal, not just a bloody spectator among the crowd that they would never remark. You know what I mean."

"Yes, I think so," answered Heidi, "though I've never been to a Quidditch match."

"Never?" Wood asked surprised. Heidi shock her head. "Never, ever?"

"No! Never," Heidi assured. "Why, is it that interesting?"

"It's amazing," Wood exclaimed. "You'll love it!" He sat studying her for a few seconds then asked. "Would you like to see one?"

"A Quidditch game?"

"Yes," Wood nodded. "The French are playing Wales this winter, and my father has promised me we'll go there to see it. If you want to come," he asked nonchalantly, "I can ask my dad to book you a ticket."

"And where exactly is this taking place," Heidi asked intrigued.

"In France!"

"France?"

"Yes, the French got awful lucky that they're playing on their own territory," Wood explained, "they normally don't allow that to happen in championships, but it was a gamble, and they drew a lucky number. The Wales aren't that bad though, and I personally think it should be and interesting match. It's due to take place on the 21 of December, the first week of the Christmas break."

"Tempting," Heidi muttered, chewing her bottom lip. "I'd like to go, but I can't."

"Why?" Wood asked disappointed.

"For one, I have no means of traveling to France-"

"Oh, that won't be much of a problem," Wood said dismissively. "You can come with me and my father - we're taking a Portkey there."

"Portkey?" asked Heidi puzzled.

"Something similar to apparition, only less nauseating," Wood said.

"Aha," Heidi nodded pondering over the idea. "Can I bring my brother and sister along?" she asked.

"You have a brother?"

"Well, he's really my cousin, and he's a Muggle," Heidi told him. "But he loves anything related to Wizards in general, and I'm sure he'd love to see a Quidditch match, I mean... if that's not a problem?"

"No, no problem at all," Wood assured.

Heidi beamed at him. "Thanks! I'll pay for the thickets," she promised.

Wood nodded and proceeded to tuck a stray strand of her hair behind her ear while looking at her intently.

"What? Is something on my face?" Heidi asked.

Wood didn't get the chance to answer as the door to the infirmary slipped open and out came a very dishevel Madam Pomfrey.

"She's finally awake. But I warn you, keep the noise to a minimum, she's still very week!" Madam Pomfrey said and let them in.

Fred and Heidi stormed pass her and went straight to Angelina's bed.

"How are you feeling Ange?" Fred asked concerned.

"Like I've just been run over by a herd of Hippogriffs," she looked like it too. Most of her body was fitted in a thick bandage, while her beautiful chocolate skin had taken on the shape of a sickly Cordovan color, giving her a mummy-like appearance and there was a tired glee in her eyes that not even old people displayed.

"Did we win?" she asked jadedly.

"We sure did," Alicia confirmed.

"And Heidi smashed a Bludger straight into Marcus Flint's balls. I hope she left him impotent," Fred crossed his fingers.

Angelina burst out laughing, but it soon turned into and all out groan as pain shot though her recovering boons. Madam Pomfrey ushered them out after that, yelling all the whiled about dangerous sports and precarious teenagers.

-----

"You asked if you could bring me and Dudley?!" Diana shrieked at her sister.

"Yeah, what's wrong with that?" Heidi asked confused.

The quartet was currently in the Gryffindor common room, sitting in the comfortable armchairs by the fire. Heidi was crouched near the fire on the floor with a fluffy pillow underneath her buttocks and had just finished telling them about Angelina's hospitalization and Wood's invitation to go and see the Quidditch match in France.

"He was hitting on you," Diana said.

"Who? Wood?" Heidi asked confused.

"Yes, he was hitting on you," Diana answered.

"Are you kidding me?" Heidi gave her sister a disbelieved look.

"He was hitting on you," both Neville and Hermione assured.

"I don't think so," Heidi contradicted. "Not every guy who talks to you wants to snogg you Diana! Look at Neville! He doesn't want to snogg us, he likes Ginny!"

"That's a different matter entirely," Diana said sharply. "And you are so not gonna blow up your chance at making a cute boyfriend by bringing me and Dudley along!"

Heidi looked puzzled at her sister. "So, you don't want to come?"

"No! And you're not taking Dudley either!" Diana snapped. "Hermione, I'm coming to your house for this winter and we're bringing Heidi along, so that she'd have a plausible enough excuse to be away from home while that Quidditch game takes place."

"You know I'm _so_ not gonna listen to you, right?" Heidi asked indifferently.

"Of course I know," said Diana irritably. "Why would you listen to me and go to the Quidditch match with Wood when you can-"

"Completely ignore him because I want to date Diggory instead," Heidi smirked at Diana's befuddled face. A spark of recognition lit up Diana's eyes as she remembered the Halloween banquet.

"Oh, yeah," she nodded. "We have to find out if Diggory's going too!" Diana said at once.

Heidi rolled her eyes. _Typical Diana_.

------

A rumor started spreading around the school that Colin Creevey had been eaten by the monster that lay in the chamber, since the first year magically diapered the whole weekend. On Monday morning, when Angelina was released from the hospital wing, she told the kids that Creevey had been brought to the hospital by McGonagall and Dumbledore the same night she was admitted, and that he was stiff as a statue.

"They were talking about the Chamber of Secrets like it had already been opened before," Angelina told them that morning.

Neville had been in a state of panic the whole week and had actually attempted to buy a number of talismans and charms that were circling around the school and were supposed to protect you from the monster, but Diana wouldn't have any of it.

"You're a pureblood!" she snapped at the poor boy. "There's little chance of the monster coming after you!"

"But they went after Filch's cat first," Neville protested, not seaming to realize that Diana had suddenly gone rigid besides him "and everybody knows I'm almost a Squib!"

"Would you stop that!" the red head snarled. "You're not a Squib! You're here aren't you?! And you're a genius when it comes to Herbology! So stop it with the self-pity and low self-esteem! You can be brilliant if you just try! I'm sure of it!"

Neville had flushed a deep shade of burgundy after that and had apparently taken Diana's words to heart, because in that Thursday, he got out of Potions without blowing up a single cauldron. Granted his potion looked dreadful, but hey, it was a start.

A week later, a notice appeared on the blackboard in the Gryffindor common room announcing the establishment of a Dueling Club. The girls and Neville were quite eager to take part in such an event and so, eight o'clock found the kids gathered in the great hall alongside most of the students in the school.

The four great tables had been replaced by a massive gold stage around which the thousands of candles had gathered. The ceiling's enchantments had been undone and instead of the night sky stars glittering brightly above them there was a wall colored in a morbid shade of jet-black. The sight of it (or rather lack of it) unnerved the kids. It just didn't feel right to have a black ceiling overhead instead of a beautiful night sky.

"I wonder who will be teaching us?" Hermione asked as they made their way through the chattering crowd and towards the golden stage.

"As long as it's not- " Diana started saying, but Heidi cut her off before she got to finish.

"It's Lockhart," she assured. "I only came to see the bastard make a fool out of himself in public."

Hermione shot her a disapproving glare.

"Why Lockhart?!" Diana whined.

"Lock around you?" Heidi said. "Do you think anyone else would be that insensitive enough as to request a giant gold platform on which to duel?"

Diana glared at the gigantic piece of gold and said "Point taken."

It didn't take long for Lockhart to make an appearance. The fact that Snape was tailing slightly behind him puzzled the girls.

"Gather round, gather round! Can everyone see me? Can you all hear me? Excellent!" he said all this in a very self-important voice which left the twins feeling rather cold inside and not a little disgusted. Hermione and Neville however, were looking at him in pure amazement, as if they couldn't believe their eyes that the national hero of the Wizarding world was willing to share with them his skills. Hermione was actually day-dreaming, and not for the first time Diana found herself doubting her friend's taste in boys.

"Let me introduce my assistant, Professor Snape," said Lockhart, flashing a wide smile. "He tells me he knows a tiny little bit about dueling himself and has sportingly agreed to help me with a short demonstration before we begin. Now, I don't want any of you youngsters to worry — you'll still have your Potions master when I'm through with him, never fear!"

Heidi was sure she saw Snape's eyes give a slight twitch and was holding her fingers crossed so that Lockhart would receive a good round of humiliation within the next minutes — the pompous bastard definitely needed to be brought down a notch or eight.

Neville was shaking besides Diana and was silently wondering whether his DADA teacher would survive this encounter, because Snape was now baring his teeth at Lockhart and giving him such a predator look that you would think the blond man dressed in plumy colors was nothing less then a pig brought to a slaughter house.

Lockhart and Snape turned to face each other and then the narcissistic teacher began ranting about the correct mode you had to hold yourself during a duel. Hermione was hanging on every word, while Heidi kept snorting at every word, thinking that if they were in an actual duel, she for one wouldn't let her opponent get all flashy and mannered with stupid dueling positions and…her mind began to wander in some other far, far away land, and she would have missed the spectacular event had her sister not nudged her in the ribs just as Lockhart said "3!"

"Expeliarmus!" Snape cried and, suddenly, a jet of brilliant light escaped his wand and went hurtling towards Lockhart who stood dumbly in place, not bothering to do anything. The spell sent him crashing in the opposite wall, face first and the twins hoped he'd'v at least cracked a tooth, but as he slipped down the wall looking slightly rumpled, the girls were disappointed to find out that he was fine. Better then fine, he actually dared to give a comeback to Snape.

"An excellent idea to show them that, Professor Snape, but if you don't mind my saying so, it was very obvious what you were about to do. If I had wanted to stop you it would have been only too easy — however, I felt it would be instructive to let them see…"

Snape was looking murderous, and the twins were still hoping he would chop off Lockhart's head any moment now, unfortunately, it seemed Lockhart was not fool enough to wag his tail in front of the lion's face any longer and promptly changed the subject.

"Enough demonstrating! I'm going to come amongst you now and put you all into pairs. Professor Snape, if you'd like to help me —"

Heidi and Diana booed when they heard that and hastily made their way towards Snape's side of the class.

The two Professors moved around the class and split the students into pairs. Neville got the misfortune of getting paired with Blaise Zabini.

Diana sent Draco an evil smirk which had the boy running towards Lockhart faster then you could say "Coward!" Unfortunately for him, he got paired up with Hermione. Diana, looking livid, made a move towards Lockhart, but Heidi held her back while sending Malfoy an icy glare. The boy gulped, knowing that he'd be begging for death if he hurt the bushy—curly haired girl.

Diana partnered Pansy Parkinson (which was second on her black list only to Malfoy), and Heidi challenged Snape himself to a duel.

"You wish to duel me, Miss Potter?" he asked with a slight raised brow.

"There is no one else left without a partner," Heidi said pointing around. "And I would like to pair someone who would at least pose a threat, not just sit around looking boastful," she shot Lockhart an appalled look.

Snape gave a slight smirk and inclined his head lightly, while taking his position as Heidi's partner.

Draco turned towards Hermione looking apprehensive. For one, she was a Mudblood and if it had been any other student he would have had a good time insulting her Muggle parents, but he already knew the demons that would come crashing down on his head if he dared to do that, so he wisely reframed from commenting on the subject.

"Why so dressed up Grange? Hoping to score one with the DA teacher?" He couldn't help himself from asking that, after all, he had to admit that she was looking quite charming tonight. But then again, anything that was styled by Diana herself was a treat for the eye and the Granger girl was no different. Draco scowled at his own thoughts. What was he doing admiring a _Mudblood_ of all things, he was still crushing on the Potter twins last he checked — he meant he was still crushing on Diana (even though the girl had sent him twice to the hospital wing already).

"If you must know, Diana wouldn't let me leave the room unless she was satisfied with my appearance," Hermione answered stiffly.

"Figures — it's not like anyone would be able to make _you_ look half decent anyway," Draco knew he was pushing his luck by insulting the Muggle-born, but it was just to satisfying to watch her get so worked up over his words that he couldn't bring himself to care.

"Face your partners!" called Lockhart, back on the platform. "And bow!"

Draco gave a mock bow which Hermione returned looking livid.

"Wands at the ready!" shouted Lockhart. "When I count to three, cast your charms to disarm your opponents — only to disarm them — we don't want any accidents — one… two… three —"

Draco didn't give much of a dang about Lockhart's speech and fired the first spell at two. Hermione dodged the spell looking shocked at him.

"That's cheating!" she accused.

"All is fair in love and war," Draco quoted and cried "Mimblewimble!"

Hermione avoided the curs and countered with one of her own. "Rictusempra!"

Draco swung to the side and sent a tickling charm her way, which unfortunately hit the girl and Hermione found herself on the floor while laughing harder then she ever had in her life.

"Unfair," she squeaked in a high pitch voice.

"It's not," Draco came to stand before her, with a triumphant smile on his face. "My, my, we are enjoying ourselves tonight," he taunted.

"You leave her alone!" it was Ron Weasley's voice that came raging out from somewhere behind Draco and the next moment, a shock wave knocked hard into his back, which had the blond stumble on his feat and fall down, knocking his head straight into that of one Hermione Granger.

Draco slammed a hand over the part of his head that had collided with the hard surface and opened his eyes to gaze into the still laughing face of the Mudblood Granger, though her eyes had a shocked glee to them. She was so close he could actually feel her breathing landing gently on his face.

_Those eyes… _

Draco marveled looking in shock at the russet orbs before him. He knew those eyes, he was sure of it! The problem was — he couldn't remember where he had seen them before.

Hermione, still giggling madly, pushed the blond off of her and struggled to get to her feet.

"Finite Incantatem," Draco chanted and Hermione gave a sight of relief when she felt the spell lift off her.

She scrambled to her feet, looking positively flushed and muttered a soft "Thank you," to the blond, while looking at her shoes.

Draco lifted her head up and locked his quizzical gaze with her confused on, and that's when Hermione finally got a good glimpse of his eyes.

Those gray orbs…she had seen them somewhere before, but she couldn't remember where.

No student around took notice of the strange behaviors of the Malfoy heir and the Granger girl, seeing as they were all preoccupied with other things, and it wasn't fighting mind you. In fact, Weasley and Crabbe where the only students left fighting in the hall, all the other occupants of the room had turned to look in aw at the match that was taking place between Heidi and Snape. The only students that had the misfortune of missing this match were a few children which had been incapacitate by their dueling partners, Pansy Parkinson being among them.

"Flippendo!" Heidi cried and in the next moment a red beam shot out of her wand and headed straight towards Snape, who sidestepped the spell while countering with his own "Expeliarmus!"

Heidi graciously rolled out of the way and shot another spell at Snape, which the professor chose to block. Heidi was slightly pissed, because they were supposed to cover the blocking spell in class a few weeks ago, but seeing as Lockhart was as dumb as he look, that of course, didn't happen, and therefore, Snape had and unjust advantage over this match, because he could block, while she was forced to move out of the way of his next spell.

"Rictusempra!"

Snape again blocked. He had to admit, that for a girl who had no idea how to perform a shielding spell she was down right brilliant. The girl could outrun a spell and her own were quite powerful. Perhaps if she had a better Defense teacher she'd pose more of a threat. But as it was, he was aiming to end this quickly.

"Rictusempra! Expeliarmus!" The first spell collided with his shield, but the second he had to dodge, because he lowered his guard too early.

"Petrificus Totalus!" Snape said and threw another spell towards her left, where the girl chose to dodge.

Heidi looked in fright at the upcoming spell and knew she couldn't dodge in time, so she did the only thing she could think of: she shot a spell at it.

"Expeliarmus!" she cried and the two spells crashed in mid air and exploded in a shower of red sparks. Heidi's eyes lit up when she saw this, while Snape tried hard to suppress a groan. Things just got tougher.

Snape fired two simultaneous spells at the girl, hoping to catch her with one, but Heidi didn't even bother to move as she shot two "Flippendos" at the upcoming danger and looked gleefully as the four met midway and dissolved into a shower of sparks. The girl started attacking with a vengeance, firing spells left and right, while Snape was trying hard to restrain himself from using nonverbal spells, after all, the shield was enough advantage — he didn't want the girl to think that he was showing of or anything.

But the girl was rather unreasonable, and their anticipated short duel stretched out for longer then he had hoped for, and now all the kids in the hall had their heads turned towards them. Now Snape was confronted with another problem: try as he might, he did not see a way out of this mess that didn't involve defeating her in a duel and therefore humiliating her in public (though that was only to be expected, she had after all challenged a teacher).

Snape was just about getting ready to fire a stunner at the girl when a high pitched scream drew the assembled mass's attention towards Hannah Abbot, a Hufflepuff second year who had the misfortune of standing right besides Ron Weasley, when Vincent Crabbe had fired the "Serpensortia!" spell.

A long black snake had shot out of his wand and was baring his fangs threateningly at Ron and Hannah, who was screaming her lungs out (which only irritated the snake) and shaking uncontrollably besides the red haired.

Hermione unconsciously held her breath and grabbed a hold of Neville's and Draco's arms who were sitting on either side of her.

"Don't move, Weasley," said Snape lazily, as he languidly made his way towards the snake. "I'll get rid of it…"

"Allow me!" shouted Lockhart and brandished his wand towards the snake.

"Expeliarmus!" the spell hurtled Lockhart into the opposite wall, knocking him unconscious.

"Don't even think about it!" Diana said and hastily made her way pass Ron and Hannah and towards the snake.

"_Hey there you_," Diana said. "_What got you so mad_?" she asked kindly.

There was an intake of breaths as the snake slowly turned its questioning eyes towards the red head and asked: "_You speak it_?"

Diana stood there gawking at the snake as if it had spurred another head. "_Yo- you, speak English_?" she asked puzzled.

The snake _chuckled_.

"_No child_," it actually waved its tail. "You _speak Parselmouth_."

Diana crouched down on her knees and gave the snake a bewildered look.

"_Parselmouth_?" she asked uncertain.

"_Snake language_," the serpent supplied.

"_Oh! You mean like Salazar Slytherin_?!" she asked excited.

"_Yes_," the snake nodded. "_Do you know of him_?"

Diana didn't get to answer the question, as, in the next second, her sister grabbed her roughly by the elbow and hoisted her to her feet.

"Hey!" Diana whined.

"_Leave the mistress be_!" the snake bared its fangs.

"_Shut it you_!" Heidi snapped and the snake lowered its head obediently.

"Heidi!" Diana protested, trying to free her arm from her sister's hold, but the other girl just tightened her grip, making Diana wince in pain. They hastily moved through the parting crowd and were out the door before Snape even got around to banishing the snake. Hermione and Neville hurried after them.

"Why didn't you tell us you were a Parselmouth?" asked Neville when he finally caught up to them.

Heidi had dragged her sister all the way up to the second floor and inside Moaning Mirtle's bathroom.

"Because we didn't know that," said Heidi sarcastically. "Believe me — I was shocked to the core when I heard this dunderhead talk to the snake, and worse of all, when I actually _understood_ what it was saying!"

"You can speak to snakes too?" Diana asked enthusiastically. "Isn't that great!"

"Are you dumb!" Heidi snarled making Diana recoil back in fright. "It's not great! It's terrible! People will think that you're the Heir of Slytherin! That you petrified Filch's cat!"

"That's a lie!" Diana objected fiercely. "I love Missis Norris! Why would I want to petrify her?!"

"You know, people won't really care about that," said Hermione. "They will automatically link a Parselmouth to Salazar Slytherin, be it that you had a clash with whoever got petrified or not."

"But that's insane," Neville protested.

"That's the truth!" Heidi said in a resigned tone. "Unfortunately."

"You mean fortunately, right?" asked Diana. There was a mischievous glee in her eyes, and a sinister smile on her face that didn't actually feel like it belong to the sweet and caring red head as she spoke those words.

"Fortunately?" asked Hermione puzzled.

"Yes," nodded Diana fervently. "Can you imagine the look on Malfoy's face when I threaten to petrify him next, or even better: that pumped up Parkinson bitch?! Oh, this is fantastic!" Diana cheered.

"Diana? Are you serious?" Hermione asked looking apprehensive. Neville was shaking beside her.

"Of course!" Diana smiled sweetly at her. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"You know, she's right," the other two heard Heidi muss. "Just thinking about Flint's terrified face would be worth the stupid rumors."

"Heidi, you don't mean that, do you?!" Hermione's voice wasn't shaky, like Neville thought it would be, it was critical, and the look the curly hair was shooting the twins was cold and flooded with discontent.

"Hey! It's not like they'd believe me if I said I wasn't Slytherin's heir, now would they?" Heidi asked grumpily. "So, if I get stuck with the bad side of the deal, I don't see what's wrong with having a little fun on its behalf."

Needless to say Hermione wasn't pleased with her answer.


	7. Chapter 7

**AN: Readers under 15 are advised to skip Heidi's dream!**

**Chapter 7: Christmas tale**

"Did you pack enough socks dear?" Petunia asked while scooping through the drawers. "Your red wooly ones are still here!" she cried and ran after Dudley.

"Mom! I'm not taking those girl socks with me!" Dudley snapped. "I'd be the laughing stock of the century!" The chubby boy was currently wearing his best garments which consisted of a pair of woolly black trousers and a black plover with blue lines.

"No you wouldn't," Diana protested. "Neville isn't that type of guy!" The red head came striding into the room all dressed up in aquamarine trousers and a blue jacket.

"I'm still not taking them!" Dudley said stubbornly.

"What about you pumpkin, did you pack your pajamas?" Petunia asked turning to look at her daughter.

"MOM!"

"She did," Heidi joined the crowd. She was dressed in an emerald sweater and wooly black pants and supported a stuffed jean back-pack on her shoulder. "I packed her things since yesterday."

Diana kissed her sister on the cheek and said: "Thank you!"

It had been three days already since the girls came back from school. The semester had ended with no little altercation between the twins and Hermione because:

1) the twins had been true to their words and therefore, had spent the last two weeks of term torturing the Slytherins. Diana had taken to speaking Parseltongue fluently whenever Draco Malfoy or Pansy Parkinson were nearby and had gone as far as to sabotage the blonde's potion in their last class. Heidi had also scared Flint shitless by promising him that he'd be the next in line to get petrified, something which neither Hermione nor Neville found amusing. And it seemed that Wood himself had a problem with the matter because he had taken Heidi aside in order to _talk_, but the whole ordeal had ended in an all out shouting match and Heidi canceling her trip to see the Quidditch match in France.

2) Hermione had at some point in time (right after one Justin Flinch-Fletcher and Nearly-Headless Nick were found petrified to be exact) suggested that they brew Polyjuice Potion in order to sneak into the Slytherin common room and find out if one of them was the real Heir of Slytherin, to which no one had agreed, and so the girl was still sore because her perfectly laid out plan had been so bluntly dismissed.

The end of the school semester had however placated her somewhat, since her exam results came back, and she was only too proud to boast about being the top of the class (alongside Heidi). And Heidi of course had sweet-talked her out of any resentful state that might have lingered. So, by the end of the last week of school the four kids had agreed to spend the Christmas holidays at Neville's house (especially since Aunt Marge had invited Petunia and Vernon over and the girls were only too eager for any excuse as to not go).

They had agreed on meeting on the third day of the holiday start, since the girls wanted to spend some time with their parents. Neville had promised to come and pick them up and assured that he wouldn't mid at all if Dudley came along (the girls were a bit reluctant to leave him home, since that would unambiguously mean that he had to go with his parents to visit their Aunt).

"Say hi to Aunt Marge for us and give her our best regards," Heidi said.

"I will cupcake," Petunia assured. "Now you kids take care of yourselves and make sure to eat properly and-"

"MOM!" the three protested.

"We'll be _fine_, seriously!" assured Diana in an exasperated tone.

"Oh, I know dear, it's just that…" Petunia burst into tears and hugged the three children to her chest.

"Mom, this is embarrassing," Dudley complained.

The door bell rang much to the kids' relief and Diana marched forward to open the door.

"Neville!" she cried delighted and hugged the chubby boy. "Hermione!" she nearly choked the girl. "Missed me?"

"I didn't miss the strangling," Hermione said while Neville nodded his head slightly pink in the face.

"This is my gran," he introduced and pointed towards an old woman dresses in a green suit with an eagle hat on top and a red purse on her right hand.

"Augusta Longbottom," the woman said in a strict tone and nodded her head stiffly.

"It's a real pleasure to finally meat you Madam," Diana gave a tentative smile. "Neville has told us so much about you."

The kids didn't manage to leave the house up until Petunia and Vernon stated their demands on the treatment of their children. They were mildly impressed by the strict old woman and couldn't help but regret their decision to leave the children in her care as they watch them go out the front door and disappear in a flash of colors.

The kids' first impression of a Porkey was that it was indeed better then Aparating, but worse then walking, or driving a car. Diana was hastily ushered to the bathroom by Missis Longbottom upon arriving, thankfully, or she might have vomited on the floor.

One thing you could say about the Longbottom estate was that it was impressive! It was quite a specious house, with two floors and a small basement. The rooms from inside were well decorated and large. The ground floor consisted of the living room, library, dining room and kitchen. There were a number of elves which hung around the house cleaning or cooking the day's meal, but the rest of the house was unnervingly empty, almost devoided of life, and the place itself gave you such an uneasy feeling that it would seem like a sin if you dared disturb the order of on single strand.

Neville was eager to show the girls his green house, but his gran snapped at him and told (more like order) him to show the guests to their rooms. Neville guided Dudley to the last floor where his room laid while Augusta took the girls to the first floor and gave them the guest rooms which were furthest from the stairs while mumbling nonsense about not allowing any misbehavior to take place in her house.

Heidi's first impression of the woman was that she definitely needed to lighten up, while Diana pitied Neville for having to live with such a strict woman for all his life, she could dang well understand now where all the low self-esteem came from.

The first day was spent mostly unpacking and familiarizing themselves with the house. Augusta, as it turned out, didn't actually fancy being around guests that much and so she retreated in the library for most of the day, only coming out for lunch and diner (which the kids soon found out were served at regular and precise intervals during the day).

Neville finally came around to showing them his greenhouse at about two in the afternoon.

"See Hermione, this here is a Viole plant," Neville pointed at one of the most beautiful plants the girls had ever seen. It had the lower part shaped like a bell who had its head lifted towards the sky and out came a Lycoris flower which had its leaves damped in every color of the rainbow.

"It's beautiful!" Diana commented looking in wonder at the plant.

"It's supposed to be one of the most poisonous plants around —" Neville ranted, sounding nothing less then Hermione after she had just swallowed a text book, "— and the legend goes that on every full moon, around midnight, the plant starts crying. The tears are supposed to have the reversed effect of a Phoenix tears and grant death to the one who drinks them instantaneously. But they're also used in some very advanced healing potion that's beyond NEWT level, so we'll never learn about them."

Hermione regarded the plant gleefully. "Have you ever verified if it's true? About the poisonous tears I mean?" she asked hastily.

"Yes I have," Neville assured. "They're real."

"What about this one?" Dudley's voice drew the kids attention. "What does this do?" He was pointing at a peculiar little plant with its leaves shaped like a pentagram and right in the middle sat a magnificent flower with crimson petals shaped like needles which were sticking out in every direction.

"This," Neville came to stand by Dudley and crouched down beside the plant, "is called the Spiga Rosso. It's a very useful plant when it comes to making blood replenish potions. My great uncle Algie gave it to me for my ninth birthday."

"Blood replenish potion?" Dudley asked confused.

"In the wizarding world they don't have transfusion D," Heidi explained, "they use blood replenishing potion when someone has lost a considered amount of blood."

"So, what, do they swallow it?" Dudley asked befuddled.

"Yep," Heidi answered.

"Ew! Gross!" Diana and Dudley said at the same time with a disgusted expression on their faces. The other three were laughing hard on behalf of the two's discontent while Diana and Dudley proceeded to throw a few colorful insults their way.

It was late that evening when the kids decided to turn in for the day. Neville honestly never felt so glad to be home and have a full two weeks all to himself to do with as he pleased. He was positive that this vacation was going to be the best he'd had so far and had a content smile carved on his face that night when he finally closed his eyes and let sleep wash over him.

-------

Heidi was dreaming about the accursed forest again. She had her mouth glued to Voldemort's and her tongue was captured in a well rehearsed dance with that of the others; the slick, copper sent of the silver liquid had engulfed her tastes and her breathing was coming in irregular pants.

She didn't quite understand why, but she found that she couldn't actually struggle against the cloaked figure, and what worried her most was that she didn't actually want to. No freaking way! This was better then flying (ok, that worried her quite a bit)! She actually found herself distracted by the night's dreams sometimes (something which bothered her more then she'd like to admit).

"What has you so worked up tonight?" a chilling voice reached her ear and drew her attention towards the stunning red orbs above her.

Heidi lifted an amused eyebrow at him and said: "So you can actually speak? I thought the cat had sliced your tongue off."

Voldemort chuckled, a cold and unsettling sound which sent shivers down Heidi's spine. "Of course I have a tongue, I though you'd know that by now."

He bent forward and trailed his tongue over her lips. Heidi couldn't help herself as she opened her mouth and captured that of the other's in a heated kiss. Voldemort pulled back after a few minutes, his lips shrews into an arrogant smirk.

"And I believe you've gotten quite accustomed to it in the last couple of months."

Heidi sent him a reproachful glare. "I didn't ask for this!" she snapped at him.

"But you're enjoying it," Voldemort said in an arrogant voice and brought his head down to her neck where he placed a tender kiss. Heidi shivered slightly and felt butterflies start popping up in her stomach.

"Stop it," she said in a quivering voice.

"I don't think so," Voldemort purred beside her neck, his soft breathing tickling the already sensitive skin. He bit her neck slightly and made his way up to her ear, planting soft kisses along the way. "You see, I've long grown tired of this _snogging game _and decided to try something more…_physical _for tonight."

"What do you mean by that?" Heidi asked slightly alarmed. The ministration on her neck felt damn good, but the thought of this _snogging game_ turning into something more… indecent scared her.

"Let me show you," Voldemort said crashed his lips down upon hers before she could utter another word. The kiss was demanding, mind-blowing. Voldemort pushed his tongue inside her mouth and explored it unremittingly while his hands, which had been standing innocently on either side of her head, wrapped around her small frame and crushed her towards his chest.

Heidi panicked, feeling more then a little claustrated when she found herself trapped between the other's slightly muscular frame and the concrete ground. Voldemort had never touched her in her other dream. He might have snogged her enough to last a lifetime, but his hands had stayed firmly around her head. Now they were trailing down her back, up towards her neck, through her hair, along her side, exploring every single part of her small frame, and damn she loved every minute of it. Voldemort's lips had moved to place kissed along her jaw and had stopped at her neck where he proceeded to bite the sensitive skin, making her gasp slightly.

"Sto-" she tried to say but his lips were upon her once more, covering up any protest. He trailed his hand over her ass and gave it a slight squeeze which had her yelp in surprise forcing her hips up into his arousal.

-------

Heidi awoke with a start and a burning sensation which enveloped her from head to toe. Her breathing was labored and she was blushing furiously as she scanned around the dark room for any sight of the pedophilic bastard. Her hand dashed under her pillow where she kept her wand and pulled it out in one swift motion, lighting the tip in the process. After scanning the room for a good five minutes and finding nothing out of the ordinary, she decided that she did NOT want to go back to sleep and got out of bed, heading for the bathroom on her left.

After a long and distressful shower, in which she tried to not think about the most recent dream she had and failing miserably, she walked out of the bathroom feeling positively worse than when she had walked in. One untrusty glare at her bed later, found her heading down the stairs, and towards the Longbottom library. She didn't want to close her eyes knowing what was waiting on the other side and considering her sleepy state, she was afraid of falling asleep.

_Nothing that a good read can't heal_, she thought jovially and opened the door to the library.

It was a neat old place, dyed in the same no-nonsense feeling as everything else in the house. The shelves were neatly polished and well kept, and the books were sitting tidily on top, all arranged in alphabetic order, and by field of expertise. There was a yellow tablet, which looked like it was made out of gold, placed at the beginning of every ledge, with the name of the subject the books addresses and the letters of the alphabet which could be found on the shelf.

Heidi snorted, amused by the rigorousness of it all, and began wondering the shelves.

_Hmm… let's see… Transfiguration? No. Herbology? No. History of Magic? No. Care of Magical Creatures?_ _What's that?_ Heidi mussed as she looked upon the two or three selves that seemed to be dedicated entirely to the subject. _Oh, yeah, it's one of those subjects which we can take in third year_. She remembered and decided to trail along the lines of books. _Diana would be at home here_, she thought with a slight chuckle.

She was leisurely passing though, looking at random titles from time to time, when a particular one caught her interest. _Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them_ by Newt Scamander. The title brought up the whole incident of the Chamber of Secrets in her mind so she pulled out the book, hoping that it would give her some sort of clue as to what might be in the chamber. She rushed up at the front of the shelves where a medium sized oak table lay, surrounded by three chairs, where she took a seat and opened the book, eager to start reading.

There was a whole bunch of useless things decorating the first pages, including a speech from Albus Dumbledore himself (which the girl decided to leave for another time), an introduction (which didn't grab her attention all that much), something about Muggles and a whole bunch of Ministry blabs, and then finally after about 10-20 pages of pure boredom the list of the beasts began.

And the very first looked like a likable candidate for her Chamber monster: the Acromantula – though it had one problem…or two: 1. It was big, which meant that it had no where to hide, and therefore someone would have seen the enormous beast stumbling around (though if it was controlled by an evil bastard, lets say…Snape, it wouldn't be so hard to hide the enormous thing). 2. There was no way the spider could petrify someone. Paralyze, yes, but petrify, no.

Then there was this small fire creature called the Ashwinder which seemed relatively harmless in Heidi's opinion. Then there was the Augurey – a bird thought to be able to foretell death, or curse the person that heard its song to die. That was all nice and peachy, but there was no way that that little bugger could be responsible for all the petrifications that had been going on.

The forth one was called a Basilisk _also known as King of Serpents…HOLY SHIT!!!_

_The Basilisk is a brilliant green serpent that may reach up to fifty feet in length. The male has a scarlet plume upon its head. It has exceptionally venomous fangs but its most dangerous means of attack is the gaze of its yellow eyes. Anyone looking directly into them will suffer instant death!!!_

Heidi stood there glaring at the piece of paragraph, unable to believe what she was reading.

_There's no freaking way that the monster in the chamber is a Basilisk_! She tried to assure herself. _Something that big would have been seen as it wandered through the castle! It sais right here that even dark wizards have stopped keeping them! And that there hasn't been a sighting of one in Britain for over 400 years!_

She tried to reassure herself that there was no way such a beast could exist at Hogwarts right underneath Dumbledore's nose. Though there was a voice in the back of her head that said otherwise. That said that Salazar Slytherin was a Parselmouth and would therefore have no problem controlling such a monster. And if the Chamber of Secrets was truly hidden under parsel-protective spells, then neither Dumbledore nor anyone else except a Parselmouth would be the wisest and with the chamber sealed, there was no way that people would have know about it, since Salazar Slytherin lived for over 1000 years ago…

_NO_! She snapped stubbornly and turned the page. _There has to be some other monstrosity here that can fit the requirements better. Like…a Chimera!_ She pondered on whether that would be any better, and came to the conclusion that, yes, it would. But it was impossible, since a Chimera could not petrify people. _What about a Dragon?_ It still couldn't petrify people! The Nundu was a damn good candidate, if it weren't for that paragraph were it specifically mentioned that it had never been subdued by anything less then 100 wizards working together.

She finally found it! The Runespoor! It was a favorite among the Dark wizards, it was a snake! But it didn't usually have a long life…

"Damn you!" she snapped closing the book with a bang. "I am NOT going to believe that a Basilisk is hiding somewhere underneath the school! No fucking way!" She left the book lying on the table and ran out of the library, up the stairs and back into her room where she jumped in her bed and tried to sleep the matter off. BAD IDEA!!

----

Something was wrong with her sister, Diana could feel it…and it was kind of obvious, seeing as she woke at 11:30 (which was _way_ to late in her sister's schedule), she had dark circles underneath her eyes and she was unusually grouchy for no apparent reason. Hermione was shooting her concerned looks, while Neville was looking at his shoes, probably convinced that all of this was his fault, even Dudley had noticed that something was off with his sister and had asked her so.

"What's happened to you?"

"Hmm?" Heidi turned towards Dudley to give him a distant look, her mind clearly in other places.

"I asked what's happened to you? Why are you so unbearably irritating today?" Dudley repeated his question.

"I'm not irritating," Heidi protested finally giving Dudley her full attention.

"Then why the long face?" asked Diana.

Heidi turned to look at her sister, a perturbed expression on her face. Should she tell them about the Basilisk? Of course she should! If there_ was_ a Basilisk in the school then Hermione, Neville and _especially_ Diana needed to know about it and make sure they staid out of trouble. But should she tell Dudley? He might tell their parents… No! What was wrong with her? She could trust Dudley to keep a secret!

"I have to show you something," Heidi said and rose from her seat at the table.

------

"A Basilisk?" asked Hermione in a small-quivering voice. Neville was green in the face and sat on the chair like he would fall off at any given time. Diana and Dudley were still reading the paragraph about the beast.

"It's the only creature that fits," Heidi admitted reluctantly.

"But it doesn't make sense!" protested Neville. "The victims were _petrified_ not killed!"

"That is the one thing that I haven't fully understood myself," admitted Heidi.

"It's easy," Diana said. The other kids turned to give her a baffled look. "What if the victims didn't look at it in the eye but through something else…lets say a mirror, water, a ghost? Well Nick's already dead, so he couldn't have died again," Diana argued though you could tell by the look on her face that she wasn't completely convinced.

"She's right," Hermione said after a few seconds of silence. "And being a snake, it might have used the pluming system to get through the castle unnoticed."

"And the heir of Slytherin being a Parselmouth would be able to control it," Heidi finished looking miserably. There was no denying it now, the evidence was too overwhelming.

"You guys have some pretty dangerous things in the wizarding world," Dudley commented from his seat at the oak table.

Absolute silence followed his statement. Hermione and Heidi had a gloomy expression to themselves while Neville was shaking in his seat. Dudley was not looking like his usual proud self, but he tried to keep a cool exterior (if only for his sisters' sake), while Diana had an unreadable expression on her face.

"So, what do we do?" asked Dudley once he got bored of the eerie silence that seemed unending.

"We have to tell Dumbledore!" Hermione said in a commanding voice. She was not to ken on arguing with her friends, but if Heidi and Diana turned unreasonable like last year, then she would fight to the teeth to prove her point.

"You're right," Heidi nodded, much to Hermione's surprise. Neville shock his head vigorously, approving to the girls' suggestion. The other occupants of the room turned to look expectantly at Diana. Truth be told, Hermione feared her answer the most, because Diana could be quite irrational when it came to animals and therefore would be less likely to agree to something that put them in danger.

To her surprise Diana nodded. "If the monster in the chamber is truly a Basilisk… then it would be a matter of time before someone is killed. Don't get me wrong, I know that the Basilisk will most probably end up dead, but… I can't risk the life of the first years for his sake!" she tried to make it sound convincing, like she actually agreed to their suggestion, but her eyes were turned to the side and her palms fisted and shaky. "There's that Weasley girl that Neville likes among them-" she turned towards Neville, her face slightly more determined then last time "-and we are _not_ going to stand by and let the snake get her, or anyone else for the matter! So we'll tell Dumbledore the moment we get back to school!"

The other kids gave a unanimous nod while smiling proudly at the girl.

"Glad to see you finally grew up," Heidi beamed at her.

"That doesn't mean that I'm not gonna try and find the Basilisk before Dumbledore does," Diana assured. "In case you've forgotten, we don't know where the chamber is!"

That brought a groan of discontent out of the other four kids.

------

The four kids soon agreed that there was no way in convincing Diana to give up on her stupid obsession on finding the chamber (she had actually made herself a map with places where she suspected the chamber might be), so Heidi had come up with the brilliant idea of practicing the defensive and offensive spells they should have learned in Lockhart's class, and of course some extra work couldn't hurt (since the DADA third and forth grade textbooks were rotting away in the Longbottom library, Heidi decided to make good use of them), something which pleased Hermione quite a lot.

"But we're not allowed to perform magic outside school," Neville protested.

"No, we aren't," Heidi nodded in agreement. "But, there is a way around that rule," she said in a mischievous voice. "You see, the Ministry underage magic detectors are just that, magic detectors. They can't establish the magical signature of the person who performed the spell, so, if a child who lives in a wizarding family performs a spell, the ministry detectors will pick a trace of magic being performed, but they won't be able to tell whether the underage child performed it or one of the other members of the family, so it overlooks this. If however the child casts a spell in a public area filled with Muggles, or he is the only wizards in a ten feet radius, then yes, he will get caught."

"So," Neville began slowly. "As long as there's an adult wizard within ten or less feet of us, we can perform spells?"

"That's right," Heidi nodded.

She had never seen Hermione or Neville look happier – it was almost like Christmas had come early. The two promptly agreed to begin their holiday training right away, and Diana and Hermione practically vowed to spend the summer holidays at Neville's too.

-------

"It says here that the cry of the roster is fatal to is!" Heidi pointed at the paragraph of the book she mentioned.

Hermione had insisted on finding out more information about the Basilisk before practicing any spells so that they could concentrate more on something that would defend them from the ferocious beast.

"Cry of the roster?" Neville asked sounding worried.

"Yes. Is something wrong Neville?" Hermione asked looking concerned at the boy.

"Well, you see," Neville began stuttering while he said: "I saw Hagrid a few days before the winter holidays started. He told me he wanted to go to Professor Dumbledore and ask for permission to put a charm on his place because something was killing his rosters!"

"More like someone," Heidi grunted. That was the final proof – the monster in the chamber was indubitably a Basilisk.

"Look's like Dobby was right," Diana muttered. "Terrible things _will_ happen at Hogwarts this year."

"Dobby! How could I forget about him?!" Heidi slapped her palm over her head. "Dobby knew about this whole ordeal! Which means that either Dobby's masters or someone close to them must be the perpetrator behind the whole Chamber incident!"

"Great, so who is Dobby's master?" prompted Hermione.

"Lucius Malfoy," Heidi answered.

"Malfoy?!" Diana asked looking disbelievingly at her. "And you didn't see fit to tell me about it?"

"Well, you _were_ dating the blond prick, so, you would have stubbornly refused to believe it, just like you do with any other thing that's not to your liking," Heidi sated diplomatically.

Diana glared at her. "You know, if this didn't give me one more reason to hate that blond brat, I would have so scalped you right about now."

"Ok, enough with the fighting! We have to figure out who is the heir of Slytherin!" Hermione snapped.

"It's not Malfoy," Diana assured. "The coward runs like hell if I start speaking in Parseltongue."

"It could be a farce. You know to mislead people," Hermione argued.

"Yeah," Neville agreed. "I mean the whole lot of his family has been in Slytherin and they're damn proud of their pureblood heritage and they loathe Muggle-bornes."

"Do you guys remember that Angelina mentioned that Dumbledore talked about the Chamber of Secrets as if it had already been open once?" Heidi asked.

The other kids nodded.

"Well, we can get a lot more concrete information out of someone who has been around and experienced first hand what it was like last time," Heidi said.

"You're right," Hermione agreed. "But we don't know when that happened and who to ask!"

"Well, let's think this logically. How old is Dumbledore?" Heidi asked looking around.

"I'd have to say about 100-109. Somewhere around that line," Hermione said, she had her face shrewd in a pensive mask and was biting her bottom lip quite furiously. "111!"

"Are you sure?"

"Positive!" Hermione nodded.

"Right. Well, let's assume that the whole incident happened somewhere around the time when he was out of Hogwarts–"

"Why out of Hogwarts?" asked Hermione.

"You remember what Angelina said: _they_ were talking, so she meant Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall!" Heidi said.

"Makes sense," nodded Diana.

"Right, so, that would imply that the chamber incident took place a few good years before we came to school – since the whole thing has apparently been forgotten – but it was before 1937, that being McGonagall's first year. Do we know anyone who attended Hogwarts at the time?" Heidi asked looking at the other kids.

"Aside form McGonagall herself," mussed Diana. "No."

"My gran attended school with McGonagall, she was two years behind her," Neville said. "Though I don't know if she knows anything about the incident."

"If the chamber incident took place during McGonagall's years at Hogwarts, then she must have heard something about it, and it wouldn't hurt to try," Heidi said and stood up.

"Yeah, but who's gonna ask her?" questioned Diana. The kids took a minute to look among themselves, there was reluctance written all over their faces, and none seemed to kin to offer himself up for the task.

"I'll do it," Heidi snapped. "Now let's get a move one!"

------

Augusta Longbottom was sitting peacefully in the living room, silently sipping on a cup of tea, when the five children walked in and stopped right in front of her, a determined look mixed with no little fear in their eyes.

"Missis Longbottom, we would like to ask you a few questions," Heidi said resolute.

Augusta shot them a suspicious glance and motioned for them to sit down.

"And what might that be?" she asked in a soft, somewhat mistrusting voice.

The kids sat on the couch across from her, all squirming in their seats. Neville and Diana had their eyes glued to their shoes, while Dudley and Hermione were looking expectantly at Heidi, who was sitting rigidly beside them.

The girl took a deep breath and finally spoke.

"We wanted to know if you had heard anything about the Chamber of Secrets?"

Augusta dropped her tea straight in her lap and looked at them in utter shock. Whatever she was expecting that they wanted to ask about was certainly not this. And, unfortunately, the reaction was practically a confirmation to Heidi's question.

The old woman's shock turned to anger and she looked ready to usher the children away, but Heidi promptly cut her off.

"The monster in the Chamber is a Basilisk! So if you know something about it I'm pleading you to tell us! Our lives might be at stake here!"

August regarded each of the five children's pleading faces and heaved in a sigh.

"Very well," she relented. "I shell tell you about the Chamber of Secrets." The kids shared a relieved smile and turned to look expectantly at the elder woman. "But first you must tell me how you came to the conclusion that the monster is a Basilisk."

The children nodded and guided Augusta in the Library where they proceeded to bombard her with all the twists and turns they had stumbled across while coming to the conclusion about the monster's identity; needles to say that Augusta was looking awestruck by the end of their speech.

"Adults cold not make the connection that mere children so easily unraveled?" She gave the children a glowing smile which brought Neville close to tears, his gran had never looked at him with such pride and content before.

"Very well, I shell tell you what happened the first time when then Chamber of Secrets was opened." Augusta said, with one last beaming smile sent towards her grandson. The children hastily gathered around the oak table of the library and pulled up seats, while looking eagerly at the old woman in front.

"It happened nearly fifty years ago, when I was halfway into my third year at Hogwarts," Augusta said with a note of melancholy in her voice. Her eyes had taken a distant glimmer as she recalled a time so long ago in the far-away past. A time that she longed to extinguish from her aging mind, but unfortunately it never seemed to want to wash away along with most of her early memories, but stayed rather stoic in place, sometimes coming back to haunt her.

"It was all so unexpected," she sighed sadly. "One minute we were merely chattering in the Great Hall, the other… we were screaming our lungs out when we found the seemingly dead body of Roxanna Stewart in the corridor of the second floor. That girl was a sixth year prefect and was apparently making her patrol throughout the corridor when she was attacked. The Headmaster, it was Armando Dippet at the time, held a brief speech the next day in which he told us that the girl had been merely petrified and was not in fact dead as we all feared and assured us that he would find the perpetrator."

"A few weeks later we all but forgot about the incident. Most people thought it all was a joke played on the girl, after all, not many seemed to like her, but when the second attack came round, the scene was a lot more gruesome. There was blood on the ceiling, that clearly said: _The Chamber of Secrets has been opened; Enemies of the Heir beware_."

"It was mass hysteria. The Professors took over a week to try and calm us children down with little to no results. We had found out that the two that had been attacked were in fact Muggle-borns and so most of those with Muggle heritage – and mind you there was quite a number of them in my age, probably more then nowadays – they panicked, not wanting to end up as Roxanna and James Pears – some of them even abandoned the school."

"The Headmaster had a rough weight settle on his shoulders, and the heads of House were no better. All the letters from the discontent Muggle families came pouring down in the next week or so, the high table was always filled with millions of owls fighting each other to deliver their message."

"Two months later and the fear had taken a tool on every child in school, pureblood and Muggle-born alike. The Professors kept assuring us that everything was under control, but two more students had already been petrified in the mean time, and one was found dead. A girl in my year I had little to no interaction with: Mirtle Carter."

"The Ministry issued an order for Dippet to either solve this madness or let them take over, which literary translated to: Bring this to an end or we will close down the school. Truth be told we were quite scared when Dippet took the stand and told us that night of the Ministry's decision – I for one was sure they'd send us packing the next morning, but they didn't. In fact the most interesting thing happened the day following Dippet's speech: They caught the perpetrator!"

"Everyone was celebrating and rejoicing the next day. Everyone was relieved that the whole incident was over, that we barely took notice, that in all the bull that Dippet droned to us in that speech of his about morals and social right, he forgot to mention the name of the one who had put us through hell for the most of five months."

"Though there was a rather fishy coincidence that Rubeus Hagrid was expelled the next day and Tom Riddle was given an Award for Special Services to the School, but we continued to play dumb, and enjoy the feel of piece that settled once more on the castle grounds," Augusta finished in a cheerless voice. She took a deep breath and exhaled sadly, her mind still lingering on the tale she had just disclosed upon the children. Her eyes flickered to the silent faces of her guests and grandson. They hadn't interrupted once, sitting stiffly in their chairs, like unblinking little porcelain dolls.

Heidi and Hermione were doing a throughout analysis of the story they had heard (if their expressions were anything to go by), while the other three were looking out into space, a blank expression adorned their young faces.

"So," Diana was the first to break the silence. "You think that Hagrid was the one responsible for all this?" she asked slightly doubtful.

"No child," Augusta stated. "The ministry thinks Hagrid was the one responsible for the whole Chamber incident. I am certain of this because my son and his wife worked as Aurors for the Ministry, and I asked them to look into the case files for me. I am not sure who the perpetrator was, but I am positively convinced that it was not Rubeus who did all those terrible things."

"No, Hagrid is not capable of doing something like that," Heidi agreed. "He's clumsy, and extremely gullible. Add his unhealthy obsession with animals to the list and he's the perfect candidate to be framed for such an incident."

"You really think someone framed Hagrid?" asked Neville.

"We're positive," said Hermione. "The question is who?"

"Nope," Heidi disagreed. "The question is how?"

The kids and old woman gave her a baffled look, but didn't quite come around to question her as to the meaning of her words, because the girl turned to Augusta and asked:

"Moaning Mirtle, the ghost which haunts the second floor bathroom was killed during the attack?" she asked looking slightly suspicious.

"Yes," Augusta nodded.

"And the first victim was found in the second floor corridor?" she persisted.

"That is correct," Augusta said, still not sure as to where this whole thing was going, but Hermione had apparently figured it out because she asked:

"And the message regarding the Chamber was found…?"

"On the second floor corridor, right where the second victim la–" something seemed to click within Augusta's head and she looked in utter shock at the two girls.

"How did I not see the connection?" she asked something between shock and resentment clouding her voice.

"What didn't you see?" asked Dudley impatient. He had been lost for most of the conversation, and was feeling rather hurt for being left out.

"The second floor corridor," Hermione exclaimed, giving Dudley a desperate look. "That's were the message was last time, and this time too! The first victim was found there both in the past and present! Moaning Mirtle died in the bathroom of the second floor corridor! Don't you get it? It means the Chamber of Secrets is located somewhere in the second floor corridor, where all the events took place!"

"Oh," Dudley said, too shocked to be able to phrase anything else.

"I don't believe it," Neville shock his head, surprise still clear on his face.

"We found the chamber," Diana spoke like in a sort of trance. "We found the chamber!" she said more clearly then the last time and a blissful smile spread on her young, pretty face. The smile soon edged on all the surrounding children and in mere seconds the Longbottom library was engulfed in uproars of cheers and cries of joy as the kids jumped up and down and hugged each other in excitement.

Missis Longbottom was sitting silently in her chair and smiling jovially at the childish display of happiness as she lamented the IQ of today's society. After all, four seconds years and a Muggle boy were able to solve a mystery that left the adults baffled…

She sighed sadly.

_What is the world coming to? _


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8: T.M. Riddle**

The rest of the Christmas Holidays passed by without further incident.

Missis Longbottom actually opened up to the children and it was more often then not that you would find her at eight o'clock sharp engulfed in a debate with the five kids on mostly any subject at hand. She was mildly impressed with Diana and Neville's knowledge of Herbology, respectively Charms and Care of Magical Creatures, and more then a little awed at Hermione and Heidi's vast knowledge of mostly anything and everything, while Dudley won the woman over with talks about the Muggle life and drills (something he had learned from his father).

Two days before Christmas found the kids and Miss Longbottom in Diagon Alley wondering for presents.

Christmas day was spent in a jovial atmosphere, the twins, Dudley and Hermione received gifts from their parents and a few old friends like: Lavender and Parvati, Hagrid, Malfoy (surprisingly) and Ron Weasley (though, this time, it was addressed to Hermione).

The rest of the week past in a whirlwind of fun and relaxation, and no little work on the kids' defensive and offensive spells – the four were surely not going to take the whole idea of a Basilisk running around the school lightly, especially since they weren't quite sure where the entrance to the Chamber was – so, Missis Longbottom would often indulge them with a duel or two, in which they would get totally whooped by the elder woman.

The twins, Dudley and Hermione returned to their respective houses on the semi-last day of the holidays and promised Neville they would see each other on the train.

------

"So, what are we gonna do about the whole chamber incident?" Diana asked once she, Heidi, Hermione and Neville had managed to find a free compartment and barricade themselves in it.

"I say we go and tell Dumbledore," Hermione insisted. "We promised Missis Longbottom that we'd do just that the moment we get to school!"

"I had my fingers crossed," Diana said earning herself an enraged glare from her bushy haired friend. "Why don't you try to straighten that hair of yours?" Diana snapped. "Come her and let me fix it for you!"

Diana started fussing over Hermione's curly looks while the seriously aggravated girl turned to look at the other occupants of the compartment.

"Diana's right," Heidi said. "We can't go to Dumbledore without proof. I say we check the corridor for the entrance in the chamber, and then, once we find it, we go and tell Dumbledore."

"We're not going in are we?" asked Neville looking fearful.

"Of course not," Heidi waved his worries aside.

_That's what you think_, Diana mussed in a mischievous voice.

-------

The first evening at Hogwarts past by with little to no incident, since the kids were far too exhausted, thanks to their long journey, to think of anything else but sleep.

The following day, when afternoon came and the sun was glittering through the mount of foggy clouds, no soon had lunch ended and the majority of the school headed out towards the grounds to enjoy what little good weather the day would provide, found the quartet snuggled inside a broom closet on the second floor, anxiously waiting for Snape (that greasy git!), to pass so that they could begin their inspection of the corridor.

The kids had come fully equipped with two sets of mirrors (Neville had four), and a tricky little device that the girls had found in Diagon Alley which was charmed to replicate any animal's voice (it was currently set on roster).

Snape finally strolled around a corner and down towards the spiral staircase, his long, black cloak billowing dramatically after him with every sluggish step the man took.

The four kids poked their heads out to make sure the coast was clear and then quietly exited the cramp closet.

"What do you think Snape was doing here?" Neville queried in barely a whisper.

"Isn't it obvious," Diana asked in an equally quiet voice. "He's the culprit! And is therefore checking the corridor to make sure he hasn't left any evidence behind!"

"Or just to hinder people from investigating," Heidi supplied.

"Yeah, that too," Diana nodded.

"Guys! Would you stop that," Hermione chastised. "You've suspected Snape last year and you were proven wrong! What if you're wrong this time?"

"What if we're right?" Heidi countered.

"Stop yapping and start scanning the corridor already!" Diana prompted. "We don't know when that oversized bat is gonna come back again!"

The kids gave a mute nod and proceeded to split up in pairs and took to wandering the corridor. Diana and Hermione took charge of the path which led toward the spiral staircase, while Neville and Heidi set off down the opposite road.

"You know," Hermione muttered after some time. "I, for one, doubt that Slytherin would have left his chamber in a corridor, I think he might have built it in one of the classrooms or… a secret passageway or… I don't know – a cupboard?"

"Mione, we've been over this," Diana chided. "We check the corridors first! Then, if we turn up empty handed, we check the classrooms."

"What about the bathroom? Quite a few of the incidents took place right next to it, the writing is pretty close too, and there was water on the floor the night Missis Norris was attacked. And we've already established that the Basilisk uses the pluming system to get through the school," Hermione reasoned.

Diana turned to give her friend an angry scowl.

"Hermione, we're almost at the end of the corridor here! Can't you wait a little longer?! We'll see the bathroom afterwards, I promise!"

The curly haired girl nodded reluctantly and resumed her scan of the corridor.

_Pointless_, she was thinking. _How are we supposed to find anything here if we don't know what we're looking for? It's like trying to find a needle in a sack of hay, only then we'd at least _know_ we're looking for a needle, but now _–

Something quite peculiar caught the girl's eyes as she randomly surveyed the corridor.

"Hey, look!" Hermione beckoned Diana towards her.

"Did you find something?" Diana asked eagerly.

"Just another proof that we're dealing with a Basilisk," she pointed at a crack in the wall, where an absurd number of spiders were fighting viciously with each other to get through first.

Diana shuck her head disapprovingly.

"Come on Mione, we've wasted enough time."

The two resumed their scan of the corridor, but half an hour later, when the four had reassembled, they came up empty handed.

"I say we try the bathroom," Hermione opted.

"I agree," Heidi nodded.

"She's been a nightmare," Diana whined.

"It wouldn't hurt to check," Neville reasoned.

The four kids made their way towards the bathroom door, while silently praying that Moaning Myrtle, the annoying spirit which haunted the place, was somewhere else.

No such luck.

The moment the four stepped into the bathroom they were greeted with the morbid sight of the pearly white figure of one of the ugliest girls you could ever see. She was a bit on the fat side, with plump cheeks and a pronounced belly. She wore round, geeky glasses and a foul look on her face which clearly stated that she was _not at all_ happy to see them.

"Hello Myrtle," Hermione greeted cordially.

"What are you doing here?" Myrtle asked sharply. "Come to throw something else at me?"

"Why would you think that, Myrtle?" Neville asked kindly. "You know we'd never do something like that to you."

"And why should I believe that?" she snapped. "You're just as-"

"Because I know what it's like when someone else bullies you," Neville promptly interrupted. "And I'm not a fan of such barbaric behaviors! I would never submit someone to such vile treatment."

"That's right Myrtle," Hermione joined in the conversation. "You know that we would never dream of hurting you. Why don't you tell us what's wrong?" Hermione inquired, smiling reassuringly at the ghost.

Myrtle began sobbing and talking about what a horrible day she had had, and how Peeves the poltergeist had chases her throughout the castle with a bag of popcorn which he had thrown at her, while Diana and Heidi scooped the bathroom for anything out of the ordinary.

The floor was unusually slippery, and a putrid smell of sorts mixed with the sent of decaying metal was still traceable in the air. It seemed that Myrtle had flooded the toilets not long ago, the twins were just glad that they hadn't been around to see it.

"Myrtle, is this the object that was thrown at you?" Diana asked while critically surveying a shabby little book which lay unceremoniously on the glassy floor. Contrary to the rest of the surrounding, which was, for the most part, dry, the black and scrawny book was still soaked to the cover, and not a little smelly.

"Yes, that's it," Myrtle choked out and began sobbing again.

Neville shock his head disappointed, then he and Hermione resumed their vain attempts at calming the ghost. Heidi was already inspecting some other side of the bathroom, her attention short for such childish behavior. Diana too, was about to turn her head away from the plain book, but something on the back of its cover caught her eye.

"1942?" That was the date that was imprinted on the back of the diary. "50 years from today? That's rather old," Diana mussed. She sent the old book a dirty look – _it must be filled with germs and god only knows what other stuff_. She tentatively stretched out a hand towards the sullied old thing only to withdraw it before it touched the cover.

_What the bloody hell is wrong with you! Leave the filthy thing to rot! _Her inner voice snapped at her, but there was another voice which prompted her forward, taunting her with the promise of information about the Chamber's location, or even the name of the perpetrator.

_And 1942 shouldn't be _that_ long apart from when the chamber incident took place, the owner might have written something!_ That soul thought convinced her to hastily pick up the tiny book and stuff it in her bag. She then pulled out a napkin from her pocket and whipped her hands on it.

At diner time, the kids left the corridor behind, though quite reluctant, but the two know-it-alls insisted that it would look suspicious if they missed dinner. "Someone might think there has been another attack," Hermione tried reasoning with Diana, but the red head was as stubborn as ever, though, one death threat and a rather nasty glare from her sister latter, had her on her way towards the Great Hall faster then you could blink.

"So, we found nothing," Neville said discouraged.

"Hey, don't give up yet! There's still loads of places aside from the bathroom on that corridor," Diana encouraged. "We'll find that stupid entrance eventually!" she assured, and dove into her plate of food.

"And I was so sure it was the bathroom," mumbled Hermione disgruntled.

After diner, the kids decided to return to the corridor to do some last-minute-scan, but they bumped into Filch who whined about the slow rate at which the Mandrakes were growing. Then Filch resumed his guard of the corridor and the kids had no other option but to head up to bed, less they risked looking suspicious to Filch.

"We wouldn't need to do this if we just go to Dumbledore and let him take care of things," Hermione reprimand and stormed off to bed looking irritated.

"What's her problem?" Diana grunted as she settled into on of the comfy armchairs by the fire.

"She's mad because she's right," Neville said matter-of-factly. "I'm off to bed, and just so you know: We don't find the chamber in one week's time, then I personally am going to Dumbledore and I'll tell him everything I know."

"Neville! Are you really gonna be like that?!" Diana whined, but the blond boy was already on his way up the stairs and didn't bother to grace her with a response. Heidi was soon to follow Neville's lead and head up with a last drowsy "Good night," to her sister.

Diana patiently waited for her sister to disappear off to bed, then she hurriedly laid her bag on the table and scooped through, up until she found the germ-infested diary she had picked up earlier. Giggling slightly, she hastily opened up the tiny book, expecting to find some long forgotten treasure of the past, but came across empty page, much to her disappointment.

"You have got to be kidding me," she glared at the dirty old book with distaste. "Not one little word?" she flipped throughout the pages, but found absolutely nothing in the old book, only a name written on the back page in a neat handwriting, which read: T.M. Riddle.

"T. M. Riddle?" Diana wondered. "I know that name…" But for the life of her she could not remember where she had seen it. "T? Tom? Tom Riddle!" she exclaimed, suddenly remembering the Award for Special Services to the School she had seen in the trophy room a little over a year ago. "This belonged to Tom Riddle!" she giggled, while regarding the ragged old diary in a new light. "And he didn't even bother to write in it," she huffed disappointed.

"His loss," she said and pulled out a quill.

_January 7, 1992_, she wrote. _I'm bored_! Then sniggered. _Should I start writing a diary?_ She was pondering over those words, when the writing on the diary suddenly disappeared to be replaced by a sentence written in the same neat handwriting as the name on the back:

I don't see why not. A lot of people find it practical to be able to share their thoughts with someone, even if that someone is an inanimate piece of paper.

The writing then magically disappeared and Diana was stuck gaping at the black paper for several seconds up until she finally snapped out of her stupor and hurriedly dove her quill into the ink bottle and wrote:

_How did you do that?_

The ink disappeared again and a new line appeared:

_Do what?_

_That?_ Diana wrote impatient. _Make the writing disappear?_

_Oh, that! I'll explain to you in a minute, but first, could you tell me your name?_

_Oh, how rude of me. My name is Diana Potter. And you are?_

_Tom Riddle. It is a pleasure meeting you milady._

_Tom Riddle? You mean the actual owner of the diary?_ Diana asked excited.

_Yes. Where have you heard of me?_

_I saw your Award in the trophy room__._

_I didn't actually think someone was interested enough to visit that place. It certainly never drew any attention in my time._

_It's not getting any special treatment today either, I just happened to stumble by it when I_ _was looking for a blond idiot I'd like nothing more then to throttle. So are you gonna tell me how is it that you can talk?...write? _

Her conversation with Tom Riddle lasted on long into the night. Diana found out that the diary was actually enchanted to preserve the boy's memory from his time at Hogwarts within, something which pleased Diana to no end, since she wanted to know everything about the boy with the cutest name in the world.

_My name is not cute! _

_Of course it is! It flows so smoothly off the tongue see: Tom Ridddddddle!_

_And my name had only two "d"-s in it!_

_I knew that!_

The conversation covered a whole variety of topics, from parents, to teachers, to the Chamber of Secrets itself.

_Did you receive that award after catching Hagrid for opening the Chamber?_ Diana had asked out of the blue.

_Where did that come from?_

_Well, it was awfully easy to make the connection. I mean, you did get your award on the same day that Hagrid was expelled and the Headmaster did announce that they had caught the culprit the day before._

_Who told you that?_

_Neville's granny, Missis Augusta Longbottom. Do you know her?_

_Yes, I remember her. She was a third year Gryffindor when the Chamber incident occurred._

_Well, I just wanted to know if you knew where the entrance to the Chamber was?_

_No, I can't say I do._

_Then how did you know Hagrid did it if you didn't know where the entrance was?_

_That is because he was hiding the monster in a box in his pocket, and-_

_A box? Are you kidding me?! A 1000 year old Basilisk can't fit in a box! It would have been as big as my house by them!_

_B-basilisk, you say?_

_Yes, Basilisk. My friends and I came to the conclusion that it could only be a Basilisk that was behind the attacks. You see it lives long enough, its eyes kill the victim instantly, but I think that if you look at them through something else it just petrifies you, and…wait for it… it's a snake! And Salazar Slytherin was renowned for his ability to talk to snakes, and being the conceited bastard that he was I'm sure he would of picked nothing less then the best as his special house pet! There! Makes sense doesn't it?_

Tom had staid surprisingly quiet after that, unnerving the red head girl with a full two minute of absolute silence.

_Tom? Is everything alright?_

_Yes__, _Tom had responded after a short pause. _I just need a break so that I can stomach what you've just revealed to me. I hope you don't mind?_

_No, not at all!_ Diana was quick to reply. _It's already three in the morning, so I best be going of to sleep _–_ busy day tomorrow and so on. Good night Tom!_

_Good night,_ where the last words of the diary for that night.

Diana had actually started worrying that she might have upset the diary somehow, or been a little to insensitive about the whole Chamber story. After all, Tom might have wrongly accused an innocent man. She too would have been shaken had that happened to her. Diana went to sleep with a heavy heart that night, but not before promising herself that she would somehow cheer Tom up tomorrow.

------

It seemed Diana needn't had worried, since Tom was back in good spirit the next day and actually offered to help her and her friends come to the bottom of the whole Chamber incident.

_Well, we know that it's housing a Basilisk, and that it's supposed to be located somewhere on the second floor._

_Second floor? Why the second floor?_

_Well, for one: The writing appeared there, both the first and last time, then there's the fact that both the past and present victims seem to have been found somewhere inside that corridor, and of course there's also the bathroom there, which is a perfect place for a__snake to use to get into the pluming system – we've come to that conclusion that he uses those to move around._

_That's quite and interesting theory._

_Oh, you don't know the half of it! But anyhow, we're stuck on places to search. Our best guess was the bathroom, but we found nothing there._

_Nothing?_

_Nope, nothing. _

_Well, you did say that Salazar Slytherin was a Parselmouth, maybe he has sealed the exit with parsel-magic?_

_We thought about that too. And it won't be much of a problem since my sister and I can speak Parseltongue._

_Oh, really?_

_Yeah, isn't it great?!_

Tom's answers took a suspicious one-word-only turn, which made Diana think that she might have said something else that had upset the boy and so she decided to change the topic, which seemed to alleviate the diary a bit, as his responses became concrete sentences once more.

Diana thought a few times about telling her sister and friends about Tom, but she didn't actually feel like it. She didn't like the idea of sharing such a smart and hot guy with anyone – she had asked to see his face one day and Tom had told her to lock for one in the Hogwarts register, and what she found was one hell of a guy who she'd like to snogg on sight. She didn't want to unnerve Tom with the whole Chamber subject and so, she had resorted to not mentioning about her daily wonders throughout the corridor with little to no success to the old diary, and had instead take to discussing her courses and homework with him.

On more then one occasion the old diary had helped her out with her assignments which had earned her an Outstanding in class and a suspicious glare from her sister which she easily countered with a: "So what? You think you're the only one who's studying around here?" Which had earned her a few more suspicious looks from her sister, but the green eyed girl refused to comment.

So, between swooping the corridors, talking to the memory of a 50 year old boy, Quidditch practice, coir lessons, a tone of homework which seemed to double by the day and the ever exhausting classes themselves, 14 of February found the quarter in another heated battle.

"Diana, Heidi, Hermione! Be reasonable already! We have to tell Dumbledore!" Neville was whining on that fateful day.

Over the past month, Hermione had started seeing the whole find-the-Chamber-of-Secrets thing as a new and exciting project, while Heidi just got plain stresses over the fact and the two had joined Diana in her protest about going to Dumbledore. Neville had, of course, not been true to his word about telling Dumbledore in fear that he might anger his newly acquired friends, and therefore, the girls had stopped taking him serious on the threat and stubbornly refused to listen to his request.

"Neville have you sent Ginny a valentine's card?" Diana asked in hopes of distracting the boy.

It worked. The blond turned bright red and began stuttering madly while nodding his head.

"Oh, I'm so proud of you!" Diana squeaked and hugged the boy, then quickly pulled away and asked: "You didn't send it anonymously did you?"

Neville hung his head in shame and Diana gave a frustrated groan. "Why? Why can't you just go up to her and tell her you like her?! Not even in a bloody letter Neville!"

"Sorry," Neville muttered embarrassed.

"You're one to talk," Heidi hissed tauntingly. "When you told Malfoy that you liked him barely a year after you started crushing on him."

Diana blushed an angry shade of red and turned to glare daggers at her twin. "Well, sissy dear, have you sent Diggory any letters for Valentine?" she shot back while giving her sister a nasty smile.

"Of course," Heidi answered. "And it's signed," she added smugly.

Diana squeaked in delight and throttled her sister with a hug while Neville looked at her with new found admiration and Hermione hung her head while forcing on a smile.

"Is your abandoned-at-the-shore complex not over yet?" Diana asked the brown haired girl. Hermione did not answer and definitely didn't make a move to lift her head of the ground.

"Please tell me that you did not send a Valentine to Lockhart or Weasley!" it was a demand rather then a question, and Hermione was definitely avoiding eye contact this time. "You didn't!" Diana snarled before she threw herself at the girl while Neville and Heidi tried to restrain her.

"Run!" Neville screeched as he wrestled Diana away from the girl.

Hermione didn't need to be told twice as she leaped from the place like a frightened puppy, while Diana managed to disentangle herself from her restrainers and chased after her. Hermione speed up towards the great hall and promptly opened the doors, only to be shocked speechless by what was inside. Diana caught up to her and was about to strangle her when she too, noticed the change that the majestic hall had undergone.

The walls were tinted in a pale pink color on which a multitude of flowers of all shapes and sizes were embroidered, and there were heart-shaped confetti falling from the navy blue sky.

The girls stood rotten to the spot, mystified by the sight in front and only snapped out of their stupor when Heidi and Neville walked in behind them and gave a disgusted groan at the sight ahead.

"I thought Halloween was over," Heidi said while wrinkling her nose.

"It's so _cute_!" Diana said in a dreamy voice.

"Yes, it is quite a sight," Hermione mumbled from somewhere beside her.

"I bet Lockhart did it," Heidi said. Diana's smile dropped of her face and Hermione's eyes seemed to acquire a new glee of delight, while Neville looked plainly uncomfortable with the girlish decoration.

"Well it's not that good," Diana scoffed heading for the Gryffindor table and took a seat right beside the door. "Come on, let's finish eating and get out of this place before it makes me sick," she prompted.

Neville sat down instantly and began filling his plate with food, Heidi was soon to follow, but Hermione, on the other hand, turned to give her a disapproving glare.

"You said it was cute earlier," she reminded.

"That was _before_ I found out who made the arrangements," Diana said and stuffed a pile of potatoes and sausage in her mouth.

"I can't believe you're being so biased!" Hermione huffed indignantly and took a seat next to Neville.

"Happy Valentine's Day!" Lockhart shouted, making the quarter jump in surprise. Diana nearly choked on her potato, while Neville almost fell under the table, Heidi sent him a few colorful swears while Hermione looked up with a racing heart.

Lockhart was dressed in lurid pink robes, which matched the color on the walls perfectly, and was droning on about the decorations as if they were some sort of treat he was handing out to little children. He actually dared to whine about the fact that he received only forty-six Valentines so far in his ever attention-seeker-brat manner and revealed to them that he had had the vile idea of hiring dwarfs to send their Valentines (a fact that horrified more then a few students).

"Why not ask Professor Snape to show you how to whip up a Love Potion! And while you're at it, Professor Flitwick knows more about Entrancing Enchantments than any wizard I've ever met, the sly old dog!"

Diana's nostrils blew out steam when she saw her favorite professor look positively distraught at the high table while Heidi hoped that Snape would just off Lockhart one of these days and not take his anger on the poor fangirls which were sure to follow his lead and got to the man for a love-potion.

"You were_ not_ one of those silly little fangirls who sent that man letters were you?" Diana asked in barely contained anger.

Hermione threw her a fearful expression and finished her food in one gulp then proceeded to storm out of the Great Hall with Diana fast on her tail. Neville and Heidi sighed in defeat and hastily took a few bites, then sat up and left the hall.

On their way out, Neville and Heidi bumped into Ginny Weasley who had a desperate sort of expression on her face.

"Hey there Gins," Heidi greeted. "Where's the fire?"

"Hello, Miss Potter," the girl replied shyly. "I was just wondering if you have seen a small black diary somewhere around here? I lost mine about a month ago and it's very important to me and I need it back, but I can't-"

"Hey, slow down," Heidi interrupted. "There's no need to panic! We'll help you find your diary. Isn't that right Neville?"

Neville flushed bright red and nodded his head. "Yeah," he managed to say.

"Oh, thank you," Ginny looked relieved. "I was so scared and I can't tell my brothers or they'll tease me about it."

"Ok. Let's sit down and why don't you tell me where you've last seen it," Heidi prompted and dragged Neville along.

Ginny kept stuttering madly as she tried to recall where she had lost the diary, and the three kids circled around the school looking for it, up until they reached Moaning Mirtle's bathroom.

"This is where you lost your diary?" asked Heidi confused.

"I'm sure I didn't have it on me when I left," Ginny replied.

"What were you doing here in the first place?" Heidi asked slightly suspicious. "This toilet is out of order."

"I know," Ginny fidget. "I just…didn't want anyone to see me when I- I just ran into Diggory and-"

"Ok, I get it," Heidi nodded while Neville looked on in confusion. "The diary was most certainly here," Heidi informed her.

"Are you sure?" asked an anxious looking Ginny.

"Yes," nodded Heidi. "My sister found it a few weeks ago when we were helping Mr. Filch clean up," she lied smoothly. "But we didn't take it. It should still be around here."

"Why don't we search for it," Neville suggested looking jittery.

The other two nodded, and for the next hour or so, the three proceeded to scan the bathroom from top to bottom, inch by inch, up until they came to the unsatisfying conclusion that the diary was nowhere to be found.

"It's not here," Neville hung his head, disappointment clearly written on his face.

"Maybe someone came in here and took it," said Ginny.

"You're probably right," nodded Heidi. "I have one more place I want to check, but first I need to go to the bathroom. Can you two wait outside for me?"

"Sure," Neville nodded then he and Ginny left the bathroom.

Heidi took her time in the bathroom, wanting to give Neville some time alone with Ginny, unaware that the two would just sit there like statues, each avoiding eyes contact, and squirming uncomfortably on the spot. She strolled off to one of the sinks and turned on the lever, wanting to wash her hands, but no water poured out of the old sink.

"Are you kidding me?!" she sighed frustrated and tried the following sink. A stream of water tipped out of the rusty old sink and Heidi washed her hands gratefully, while giving the previous sink a calculative glare. She turned off the sink and moved to the one next to it, and turned it on. Water was pouring freely out of this one too. And the next…and the next, and so on, up until she reached the first sink she had tried, which, for some reason, didn't seem to work.

"Interesting," she mussed and started scrutinizing the sink carefully, up until she came across a small serpent embroider on the sink's water pipe. She traced the serpent with her finger while looking gleefully at it.

"Gotcha," she smiled triumphantly and rushed outside to find Neville and Ginny engulfed in an awkward silence.

"Neville, I've found the Chambe-," she said and the two kids turned to look expectantly at her. "Oh," then she remembered that Ginny was there. "Right, the diary. Let's go up to the common room, there's a place I want to check."

Heidi rushed the two up to Gryffindor tower, eager to get rid of the Weasley girl, and instructed the two to wait in the common room. She rushed up to the second year girls' bedroom and headed for her sister's trunk.

Truth be told, she didn't want to think that her sister was that dumb as to take that germ filled old diary with her, but they had been scanning the corridor for weeks now, and they hadn't seen anyone walk into that bathroom, so the most likely thing that could have happened was that Diana (she tended to pick a lot of things off the street when she was young), or Hermione (she might have though someone was looking for it and would have either brought it to a teacher or took it to a prefect, or held on to it for safe keep), might have taken the diary, so, she wanted to be sure that it wasn't any of them before she sent the Weasley girl off to McGonagall or a prefect, because she was sure as hell not gonna tell that innocent little first year about her other suspicion about who might have taken her diary.

Luckily (or not), it seemed that Diana had not abandoned her bad habit of picking germy items off the ground. The diary was sitting neatly in her bed drawer. Heidi hurriedly grabbed it and marched out the door and down the steps.

"Here," she handed the diary to Ginny, and, not waiting for a thank you, she grabbed Neville and ran out of the common room, with the boy hurrying behind her.

"Heidi, what's all tha-"

Heidi spun around on the spot and whispered in a quiet, but excited tone: "I found the Chamber!"

Neville didn't seem to register what she said for the fist few seconds and looked dumbly at her, but then his eyes widened dramatically and he asked in an eager voice: "Really?"

"Yeah," Heidi nodded as means of confirmation and proceeded to tell him how she had stumbled across it in a very fast and hushed voice that the boy had trouble keeping up with what she was saying.

"And you see, that's why we couldn't find it! Because we completely disregarded the fact that the passageway to the chamber might not be hided inside a wall, so we ignored the sink at our first scan through the bathroom!"

"Wow, so we found the chamber," Neville asked bewildered.

"Yeah, we did," Heidi nodded. "We have to go and tell Diana and Hermione, then go to Dumbledore with this at once!"

Neville nodded numbly, still in a stage of shock, then the two ran down the corridor and towards the library, thinking that the two girls might have gone there to study.

Heidi marched up to madam Pince, not wanting to have to scan the whole library to find the two. "Excuse me," she said in a polite, but slightly impatient voice. Madam Pince turned to give her a cold glare. "Have you seen Hermione or my sister today?"

"No, not today," she replied coolly.

"Thank you," Heidi nodded curtly and stormed out the door with Neville rushing up beside her.

"Maybe they're in the great hall?" Neville suggested. "It's nearly lunch."

"You have a point there," Heidi nodded and the two set course for the great hall.

The two, however, decided to not go anywhere near the place when they saw the mountain of dwarfs waiting there with letters in their hands and harps on their back, looking around the crowd of people. Heidi knew that if this Valentine was gonna be anything like the last, then at least three of those dwarfs were waiting for her, so she said:

"I honestly don't think Diana would go anywhere near that place."

Neville nodded mutely – seemingly uncomfortable with approaching the threatening looking dwarfs, so the two spun on their heels and marched back up the stairs.

The two spent the next hour or so searching through the castle, and finally decided to quit their search in favor of waiting in the common room. Diana arrived half an hour after dine had started and both Neville and Heidi were quick to fill her in on the latest news regarding the Chamber incident.

"You found it?" she asked excited.

"Yeah, but we're not telling you where it is until we get to Dumbledore's office," Heidi told her sister.

"But, why not?" she asked slightly irked.

"Because you'd go in there and try to save the Basilisk," Heidi answered.

"I would not-" Diana started to protest, but Heidi cut her off.

"Do you know where Hermione is?"

"No, I haven't seen her since lunch," Diana answered.

"So, you were in the great hall?" Heidi asked puzzled.

"Yeah," Diana nodded. "A few dwarfs came and sang a few poems and delivered a few letters." Heidi gave her a skeptic look. "What?" Diana snapped. "I was hungry! I wasn't about to starve to death because of some bad written poetry! Besides they made themselves look bad by writing those things! Sis, you should have seen the look on their faces when the dwarfs shouted out their names," she said in a chuckling voice.

"Diana," Heidi looked slightly pale when she spoke. "You haven't seen Hermione at all, since lunch?"

"No," Diana answered. "I was out with Parvati and Lavender, and Mione said that she wanted to go looking for you and Neville."

"Was she at dinner?" Heidi insisted, the color on her face draining rapidly.

"No," Diana said. "I was waiting for you guys to show up, but no one did and so I got bored and came to look for you."

"We need to find Hermione," Heidi said and promptly sat up.

"Isn't she in the library?" asked Diana following her sister's lead.

"No," Neville answered. "We didn't feel like going to lunch and so, we went to look for you to tell you two about the chamber, and the library was the first place we looked."

"Figures," Diana nodded, and then stopped dead in her track. "She's been missing for four whole hours?" the red head asked in a panicked voice.

"It seems that way," Heidi nodded.

The three rushed down to the library to disturb madam Pince once again, and their worse fear was confirmed: Hermione had not been in the library once today, and knowing the girl quite well, that was not a good sign.

"Let's head down to the second floor corridor," Heidi said. "She might have thought that we were checking it out again." The kids nodded and bolted for the spiral staircase, their hearts pounding wildly in their chest.

As soon as they reached the corridor, they knew something was horribly wrong.

There was water spread out on the floor, spiders running hazardly around, trying desperate to escape the place and Filch was standing still as a statue, right in the middle of the corridor.

"Mr. Filch?" Diana asked tentatively.

Filch turned abruptly to look at her, a panicked expression maiming his face. "Diana, don't come here!" the caretaker rushed forward and tried to push her out of the corridor.

"Mr. Filch, what are you-"

"Hermione," Neville whispered in a numb voice, which still echoed in Diana's head, making her stiffen on the spot.

Heidi had dashed forward followed shortly by Neville. The sudden movement of her two companions seemed to snap the red head back into motion, and she pushed roughly past Filch, and stopped dead in her tracks.

"HERMIONE!" she shrieked and stormed towards Heidi and Neville.

Up ahead, lying stone-dead on the marble floor, surrounded by a pool of water, sat Hermione Granger. A horrified expression was carved on her marble face and a pocket mirror was held firm in the girl's hands.


	9. Chapter 9

**AN:** Second year will have 13 chapters in total. I'm currently writing the last one.

**Chapter 9: The Chamber of Secrets**

"Let me GO!" Diana shrieked as she tried to break lose from Filch's iron grip. The man was silently weeping and hadn't spoken a word since the headmaster had found the three kids and the caretaker surrounding Hermione's petrified body. Filch was even then holding on to a hysterical Diana who kept trashing and turning, albeit less violent then she was doing now.

"Please child, calm down! It will not do anyone any good, and it most definitely won't help your friend," Dumbledore tried to reason with the girl, but the mention of Hermione only made the girl struggle harder.

"I'll kill them! I'LL KILL THEM! I'LL KILL THE SON OF A BITCH WHO DID THIS TO HERMIONE! I'LL KILL HIM!" Diana began tussling violently and screaming herself hors at no one in particular, and Dumbledore felt the mounting pressure on the girl's magical core and feared it might lash out at any given time.

"Headmaster!" barked McGonagall. "Stun the girl and let's take them to Madam Pomfrey before the other students finish their meal!"

Dumbledore was quite reluctant to do as asked, despite seeing the logic in the matter, but gave up eventually and stunned the red head.

"I am terribly sorry," he whispered as he saw the girl go limb in Filch's embrace. The sobbing caretaker hoisted the girl up in his arms and stiffly made his way towards the hospital wing.

"Heidi, Mr. Longbottom," Minerva came to stand beside the two children. They hadn't moved an inch from the moment the teachers had found them. They were both crouched on either side of Hermione. Neville was crying silently, while Heidi just stood still, looking just as rigid as the girl lying on the floor. "Come to the hospital wing with me," Minerva said kindly. "I'm sure Madam Pomfrey would like to check you two up."

Dumbledore helped Neville to his feet while McGonagall took hold of Heidi and guided her towards the hospital wing. Dumbledore levitated Hermione's petrified frame and followed the two with Neville by his side.

To say Madam Pomfrey was mad was an understatement. She was beyond furious. And mind you it had nothing to do with Hermione's petrified form, no, it was more related to the fact that it took two whole hours, three bottles of calming draught and one more stunner to call Diana down (meaning that she was lying unconscious in a hospital bed after being at the receiver's end of one of Minerva's stunners). Let's not forget about Heidi, who was apparently in a state of shock, and had refused to speak to anyone throughout the night. Pomfrey had opted to giving her a calming draught and dreamless sleep potion and see how she'd react in the morning. Neville was less of a problem, but still seemed very much shaken by what had happened to his friend, so Madam Pomfrey had chosen to keep him in the hospital wing for the night as well, "Just to be on the safe side," she said.

Dumbledore and Minerva left the hospital wing with a heavy heart, and had mutely promised to come and check on the kids first thing in the morning. But for now, there wasn't much they could do but concentrate on finding the perpetrator.

------

Heidi awoke at the break of dawn, just as the rays of the sun were slowly beginning to make their way through the hospital windows and envelop the dark room in a blinding gleam of light. It looked like it was going to be a beautiful day outside. Exactly the opposite of how Heidi felt on the inside.

Despite the calming draught and the dreamless night, she was screaming on the inside. Blood was pounding in her ears and all that she could think about was how much she wanted to kill the bastard which had stolen her first ever true friend from her. She longed to break the excuse of a being into pieces, see him crumble at her feet and be reduced to the pile of trash that he truly was.

But she needed to calm down in order to do that. She needed to plan this out. After all, she had all the pieces in her hand, now all she needed to do was strike the final blow. But she needed to be able to think properly and have her sister and Neville in a reasonable enough shape so that they could help her carry out her plan.

She slowly began rising from her bed, careful not to look in Hermione's general direction, less she knew she'd be unable to think straight for a few good hour, and then made her way towards her sister's bed.

"Diana," she shock her sister lightly. "Diana, wake up." Her sister cracked an eye open, albeit reluctantly and after identifying the person who had woke her, she snapped her eyes fully open and sat up straight in her bed.

"What's the plan?" she asked eagerly. "We are gonna do something about this aren't we?"

Heidi nodded her head. "We most certainly are," she assured. "But first we need to wake up Neville."

Diana nodded and the two made their way towards Neville's bed.

Waking Neville up proved to be a bit more troublesome then expected. Stopping the boy from bursting into uncontrollable tears again proved to be more difficult.

"Neville! Stop that!" Diana snapped. "Crying is not gonna do anybody any good!"

"I know," sobbed Neville. "It never did me any good when I visited my parents at Saint Mungo's," the boy choked out. Diana stood silent by his side and waited for the boy to elaborate.

Truth be told, the girls had found it kind of weird that the chubby young boy always spoke so often of his grandmother, but never said a word about his parents, which had made the girls think that he might not be in such a good relationship with his parents, or that something bad had happened to them. But they had decided that it was best not to push the subject and let the boy come clean about his problems when he was ready.

"They were Aurors in the first war against you-know-who," Neville told them. "They were brave, respected and admired by all of the other people...and I'm glad of being their son but...I just wished that they had been a little more selfish at times," he admitted, a tad of guilt entering his voice. "I wished that they hadn't been so bloody stupid and proud as to defy the Lestrange when they came to our house," he continued, his voice slightly rising in anger. "I just wished they would have know when it was best to just give up, so that they'd not end up in Saint Mungo's like two dummies that can't even recognize their own son when he's talking to them, who can't even speak anymore and just stand there all day and looking like lifeless puppets. And my grany tells me to be proud of them, well I am!" he shouted honestly. "I am...I just...I just would have liked it best if they were shunned for being cowards, rather then praised for being insane. Because then I'd still have them with me, I'd still have parents," Neville chocked out and started crying in earnest.

"Oh, Neville," Diana went over to the boy and wrapped her arms around him, her eyes glittering with tears. Heidi two came to stand by the sobbing boy and enveloped him in a warm embrace.

Madam Pomfrey, who had been alerted of the children's early wake by the hushed voices outside, stood silently by the threshold of her chamber, knowing that her presence would not be welcomed by the three children, but afraid to leave them alone in case one of them had another breakdown like last night.

Luckily (or not) for her, the door to the hospital wing slit open and in stepped a grim looking McGonagall and Dumbledore.

"Good morning," Dumbledore greeted and was rewarded with a quiet "Morning" from the kids which hurriedly separated and turned their heads away from the two adults.

"I hope you had a good night sleep," the old man said casually.

"Yes," Heidi replied, careful to hide any trace of emotion within her voice. She turned to give the two professors an impassive stare and asked: "We would like to head back to our dorms if you don't mind. We have a few essays that are due to be handed in tomorrow, one about the transfiguration of an inanimate object if my memory doesn't fail me." Heidi nodded her head in McGonagall's direction who hastily assured:

"Considering the circumstances, I will gladly postpone the deadline for the essay."

"Now that would be unfair for all the other children who had worked their asses out all night while we were in here whining about our miserable lives, don't you think?" Heidi asked in a blunt voice.

"I'm sure they'll understand-"

"Of course they will," Heidi cut her off sharply. "Who would be as dumb as to defy a teacher?" she asked sarcastically. "That's like jumping of a cliff and expecting not to get hurt! It just doesn't work that way! And frankly, I don't want the students thinking that I'm being favored by the teachers, so if you'll excuse us," Heidi stood up, Diana and Neville follows her example. "We have homework to attend to."

The three kids walked by the two Professors and were out the door faster then the two had time to recover.

"Well, I certainly know who has the guts to jump off a cliff and expect she won't hurt herself," huffed an offended looking McGonagall.

"Do you think it wise that the children be discharged Madam Pomfrey?" Dumbledore asked the nurse calmly.

"I should say not," the nurse answered. "However, I do think that being in the presence of their friend will not help their recovery, so I suppose it might be for the best. Heaven knows how many people chose to run away from their problems rather then face them, and while that might not accomplish much, I'd say it is best to let them deal with their problems when they are prepared to do so."

Dumbledore nodded in understanding and bid the nurse good day, before exiting the hospital wing.

-------

"Are we actually going to do our homework?" asked Neville disappointed.

"Of course not!" Diana said in a '_you didn't just fall for that'_ voice. "But seriously, when did you _not_ accept favoritism?"

"It was an excuse to get us out of there," Heidi answered.

Heidi rushed forward, forcing the other two to quicken their pace in order to keep up with her and didn't slow down up until she reached the second floor corridor. She walked pass the horrid bloody writing which still adorned the corridor's wall, and straight into Moaning Mirtle's bathroom, where she banged the door shut after the other two walked in.

"Why are we here?" Neville asked confused.

"Because it's time for a little payback," Heidi stated simply. "So, you better listen up, because what I'm about to tell you isn't complicated, but I need you guys to focus so we can pull this thing off."

The other two nodded their heads and waited for the brunet to elaborate.

-------

McGonagall had been searching the castle like mad for the three kids. Despite the chat that she had with Dumbledore after they had left the hospital wing, she was still not convinced that the three were not going to do something brash or stupid like go searching for the monster in order to avenge Hermione. Diana had, after all, sent Malfoy and his gang to the hospital for insulting the girl, she was not willing to take any chances with her, and while most of the people didn't know, she had heard rumors of Heidi physically injuring the blond insufferable brat for the same reason, and considering the girl's calm and collective manner, that was more then a little worrisome.

Minerva rushed pass the spiral staircase and dodged the student's which were assembled in the entrance hall, and was just about to walk out the front doors, thinking that the kids might have gone outside for a walk, when she heard the unmistakable voice of Neville Longbottom coming from the crowd of students she'd just gone by.

"Think you're so though now that you've got Hermione in the hospital wing, don't you Malfoy?"

The voice was clouded with anger, and a fierce determination the kind Minerva had never expected to hear from the boy. The blond was purposely descending the spiral staircase, with both Potter twins on either side of him, his eyes singling out the proud figure of Draco Malfoy from amongst the crowd.

Malfoy looked stunned for a moment, whether it was the surprise of seeing Longbottom challenging him head-on, or because he had no idea what the boy was talking about remains a mystery, but the boy took care to cover up his shock with an impassive, slightly arrogant expression.

"Well, well, looking for trouble Longbottom?" Malfoy drawled in his most cocky voice, hoping to intimidate the boy. Crabbed and Goyle began clenching their fists and giving the boy threatening glares, which by the looks of it, had no effect whatsoever on the blond, because the moment he was close enough to the Malfoy heir, he shoved him hard, which had the boy stumble on his feet and nearly topple over, while Diana and Heidi pulled their wands out on Crabbe and Goyle.

"Think this is funny don't you?" Neville asked, practically spitting with rage.

Minerva had seen enough. She hurriedly pushed the student's out of her way, in a desperate attempt to reached the group before a fight ensured, but Neville's next words made her stop dead in her track and the blood in her veins run dead cold.

"Let's see how you like it when we kill your bloody snake, because we know where your pet Basilisk is, and we'll have him delivered to you by tomorrow, _in pieces_!" the arrogance in Neville's voice seemed alien to everybody in the hallway and the way he practically hisses the last two words, in a smooth, malevolent manner, made shivers run down the assembled students' spine, and a feeling of dread stirred up in Minerva's gut.

Neville suddenly turned towards the stairs and stormed back up, with Diana and Heidi following suit, but not after giving Malfoy and his cronies' one last menacing glare.

Minerva snapped out of her stupor and hurriedly resumed her desperate attempt at getting to the three children, which were officially insane. _A Basilisk_, what in Merlin's name were they talking about?

"Longbottom! Heidi! Diana!" Minerva shouted trying to get their attention, but the children had already reached the end of the first steps and had disappeared inside the corridor which led to the first floor. By the time Minerva reached the first floor landing, the kids were nowhere to be seen.

"Dumbledore," she muttered to herself. "I have to tell Dumbledore." And she huskily set foot for the headmaster's office, hoping that she wouldn't be too late in preventing a tragedy from happening.

------

By night time, an official search party was assembled in order to help locate the kids, Dumbledore himself was taking part in the actions, while the heads of house had sealed off the children in their respective common rooms, after checking and double checking that no other student except the ones petrified and the absent trio were missing. The students, for once, were only too glad to follow the teachers' advice.

It seemed that throughout the interval of barely two to three hours, the news that the monster in the chamber might be a Basilisk had spread throughout the entire school and had terrified the student body. While some were a little skeptic (mostly Ravenclaws) to believe that neither one of the six people who had been attacked had ended up dead considering the snake's deathly-glare, the fact still remained that there was little alternatives left regarding the identity of the monster, and Dumbledore wondered why it had not occurred to him sooner as to what the monster in the chamber could be, because now that he thought about it, it made perfect sense. What did not, however, make any sense to him was how the three children managed to figure out the identity of the beast and the location of the chamber. And speaking of the children, where in the bloody hell of lemon-drops were they?

Dumbledore was currently scooping the dungeons together with his trusty Potion's master, Severus Snape, and was turning up empty handed, in spite of his familiarity with the castle, and his brilliant mind.

"I don't understand," the elder wizard mussed. "Wouldn't it be reasonable to think that Slytherin built his chamber in the dungeons?" asked Dumbledore.

"Just because he built his common room here, doesn't necessarily mean he built everything down here," Snape stated coolly.

"Indeed," the old man started stroking his bear as he moved to open another door.

"Headmaster, pardon my saying," Snape addressed, "but isn't there an easier way to locate the girls, the point me spell perhaps?"

The headmaster chuckled. "Although the concept of such a simple minded spell working in Hogwarts is rather amusing Severus, I assure you that I have tried to find the girls using magical means and they have not worked."

"What do you mean by _they have not worked_?" Snape asked slightly confused.

"It means, my esteemed professor, that the kids are in an unplottable room, if not in the Chamber of Secrets itself," responded Dumbledore gravely. "And most tragically, it seems that Faux has run off on his own, without telling me," he added with a pout.

"Surely headmaster, you did not believe them when they said they had found the entrance to the Chamber?" Snape asked skeptically.

"At the moment in time, I find it hard to say that I don't," Dumbledore admitted. "I think, my old friend, that it is _you_ who is underestimating the kids' mental capacities as well as their intuitive abilities. Or do you find the fact that they have – with no adult help, as far as I am aware of – unraveled the secret behind the identity of the beast which dwells within the Chamber?"

"I take it then, that you are convinced it is a Basilisk?" Snape quizzed, curiosity getting the best of him.

"It is the most likable suspect," Dumbledore answered. "Though, for once, I would be delighted if I were to be proven wrong."

Dumbledore risked a glance in Sanpe's direction and saw, to his great disappointment, that the man was stressed out of his mind. Sure he might seem like his usual grouchy self, but to the trained eyes, you could clearly spot his stiff demeanor, the slight if almost nonexistent anxiousness in his voice, the swift movement of his eyes, which seemed determined to record every spot on every wall for the faintest sigh of abnormality.

"You are concerned for the kids' safety?" Dumbledore dared to ask, and for a slight moment, he hoped he hadn't, since the Potions master's eyes grew cold and accusing.

"There might be a Basilisk at large in the school headmaster," he reminded tersely. "I, as a professor of the school, am responsible for the students' safety just as much as you are, and give the circumstances, I do believe no past favors that Fudge owns you will be enough to keep your head out of Azkaban, let alone mine."

Dumbledore nodded in acknowledgement and resumed his search of the chamber.

-------

Silent footsteps were making their way throughout the school corridors, their loud steps muffled by a hastily cast silencing charm. Stunning brown eyes with the slight flicker of red, which would pass unnoticed from a short distance, were wildly surveying the corridor for any sign of movement while long pangs of vivid red hair were fluttering around, occasionally managing to obscure the owner's sight who angrily brushed it under her ear.

A brown wooden stick was securely tucked in one of the person's hands, and an incapacitating curse or two were always running within her mind, as well as a silent prayer as to not stumble across the meddling old fool when she rounded the next corner.

And luck seemed to be on this person's side, for within moments, the gruesome sight of the bloodied wall greeted her, and the person indulged itself a short smirk before running past it and coming to a halt in front of the bathroom on the second floor. The person did a double check of the whole area, to make sure no one had spotted or followed her here, and then pulled the door open in one swift motion, just enough to let her persona slip through the crack, and then proceeded to close it as quietly as she could while at the same time, scooping the room for any kind of movements.

Truth be told, it was quite unbecoming of him to act so rash, without a well formulated plan, just like a bloody Gryffindor, but after hearing the threat the Potter twins and Longbottom boy had made in the hallway, and then there was the incompetence of the teachers to locate the trio, well, it had unnerved him quite a bit. So he had to check, if only to alleviate the worry that kept eating away at his nerves.

After establishing that there was no one else in the bathroom except for him, the person purposely made his way towards the sink in the middle of the room and stopped before one of the sinks which had an old trail of moss imprinted on it and opened his mouth to speak. The sound that escaped the thin, cherry lips was anything but human, more rather snake like.

The sink gave a sudden shake and then the six triangular shapes slowly began parting to reveal a gigantic hole in the ground, which looked as dark as a moonless night. The sink from right in front of the person sank down into the opening which had revealed itself at the original parting of the sinks, and in its place was left an empty space, large enough for a full grown adult to fit in.

The person in front didn't give a second thought as she hastily made her way through the entrance while another soft hiss escaped her lips. A spiral staircase started growing out of the dark wall and the peculiar person didn't waste a movement before descending the spiral staircase, which led deep into the eerie darkness below.

-------

Diana and Neville were currently crouched down in the shadow of a gigantic rock at the entrance of the chamber and silently awaiting the arrival of the perpetrator behind the whole chamber incident.

It had been almost four whole hours of nothing but standing still and waiting, something which discouraged the two quite a bit, and made them think that, for once, Heidi's plan might not have been such a good idea after all.

-------

_Flashback_

"_So, you better listen up, because what I'm about to tell you isn't complicated, but I need you guys to focus so we can pull this thing off."_

Heidi had then proceeded to order the sink to open, in parselthoung, and surprise, surprise, it actually did spring open.

"Is that the-"

Diana asked, not sure what to make of it at first.

"It's the entrance to the chamber of secrets," Heidi said. "I found it yesterday, but I didn't get the chance to study it; so that's what we're going to do right now."

"You want us to enter the Chamber?" asked Neville fearfully.

"Neville!" Diana labeled him with a pointed glare. "You want to avenge Hermione, right?"

"Of course I do," Neville said hastily. "But honestly, there's a Basilisk down there, who might be rooming around! And maybe the Heir of Slytherin himself's down there!"

"It would actually be so much easier if that were the case," Heidi stated and, without giving another glance to her companions, she jumped inside the whole.

It was no more of a pleasant feel then last year, when she had jumped through the trapped door, except now, she was sliding down a tunnel of sorts, and dirtying her robes with all the moss and germs which had assembled throughout the years. To top it all up, she landed straight in a pile of bones, which gave her a few cuts here and there, but nothing to serious.

Diana and Neville were soon to be heard tumbling down the passageway with terrified screams accompanying their journey. They landed with a crack, right into the pile of bones.

"Ew, grouse," Diana wrinkled her nose in disgust.

You couldn't make much out of the place, since it was too dark to see, but a quick "Lumos" spell later, the kids could perfectly distinguish what was in front of them.

They were standing in a gigantic pit which's floor was covered in tiny animal bones and a large entrance was visible in the opposite side from where the pipe ended. Diana felt suddenly sick after seeing the mountain of animal bones and nearly fainted on the spot. Neville and Heidi were quick to rush her inside the enormous opening, which looked suspiciously like a hole in the mountains.

Diana managed to compose herself after a few minutes of being carried around and decided to spare the other two of the burden.

"Where are we going?" asked a fearful looking Neville.

"Yeah, sis, what are we looking for?" asked Diana.

"We're looking for the entrance to the actual chamber," Heidi said. "We need to make sure that the Heir of Slytherin isn't already here."

Neville almost dreaded to ask the next question, but he did anyway.

"What will happen if we find him?"

Diana gave the boy a feral grin and said: "Why, we hex him into the next century."

The sweet and jovial tone that she used did nothing to alleviate the boy's nerves, and not long after that, the trio stumbled across the outline of something huge and curvy, lying right across the tunnel.

"What's that?" Neville asked his voice shaky.

"It doesn't look like it's alive," Diana remarked and stalked forwards with Heidi at her side. Neville followed them, though reluctantly.

The light of the wands slowly illuminated the obstacle ahead, to reveal a poisonous green snake skin, which looked about twenty feet long.

"If anyone still doubts that it's a Basilisk we're dealing with, I guess that proves it," Heidi said bitterly.

"Come on sis, we knew it was a Basilisk," Diana stated. "We're wasting time here, let's go," she prompted.

The kids left the snake skin behind continued their path amongst the tunnel, which seemed unending. More then once, the kids stumbled across a few more holes in the wall, but the trio ignored them, because Heidi reminded them that they didn't have time to fool around.

"Why don't we have time?" Neville asked just as the kids rounded a corner.

"Because, if the Slytherin bastard isn't in the Chamber, then we have very little time to set up a trap and try to catch him today," Heidi answered.

"Why today?"

"Because we don't want to give him time to attack another student," said Diana. "Neville, he might go after us next," she reminded.

"Why us?"

"Do you actually think it was a coincidence that Hermione got attacked?" asked Heidi.

The trio came to a sudden halt as they stumbled across a door reminiscent to the one they saw at Gringotts, with two entwined serpents carved upon it, their eyes set with great, glinting emeralds.

The kids' throats were suddenly dry, and their hearts racing at an incredible speed, while their minds struggled to come to terms with what lied ahead. It suddenly didn't seem like a good idea to go looking for the one who had petrified so many students on their own, and they remained rotten to the spot, cursing their Gryffindor stubbornness for refusing to let them turn back and run to the teachers like the little cowards which they were at the moment.

Diana, easily the bravest of the lot, bit back her fear and demanded that the door open in Parselmouth. If the bastard who petrified Hermione was in that Chamber, she'd be damned if she'd run away before cursing the idiotic being.

The serpents slowly parted to reveal the entrance to the camber, and the kids pushed aside their fears as they rapidly made their way inside.

What lay beyond the doors was a very long, dimly lit chamber. A long corridor which led to a gigantic statue of a robed old wizard stood at the end. Long stoned pillars which were shaped as the head of a serpent ready to strike were adorning the extremes of the corridor and a few tunnels leading away from the room were barely visible on the walls. Te ceiling was lost in darkness and the greenish gloom which reflected upon the walls by the flamed torches gave the place an eerie appeal and the trio an uneasy felling.

"We can still turn around right?" asked Neville in a squeaky voice.

"No," snapped Diana. "We've come this far, we're not turning around!"

"She's right," Heidi said. "So, Neville, will you be taking the middle road or a side one?"

"What do you mean?" Neville asked confused, while Diana turned a questioning glance at her sister.

"It would be very dumb of us to all go charging through the middle while we don't know if either the Heir of Slytherin or the Basilisk is here," Heidi stated. "So, we're going to split up, and scout the room from all sides. One is going through the middle, while the other two take the side roads."

"I'm taking the middle road," said Diana, but Neville held out a hand to stop her from advancing forth.

"The middle road is the most risky right?" He asked Heidi.

"Most would think so, but no, they all have their risks," she answered. "Though, I'd have to admit that the middle road does leave you more vulnerable to attacks."

Neville nodded apprehensively and said: "I'll take the middle road."

Heidi gave him a curt nod and headed towards the path on the left, while Diana shot him an encouraging smile and took the road on the right. The three kids stalked forward feeling less then a little confident, with their wands at the ready and head held high and alert.

The journey that followed was excruciatingly nerve breaking. The three expected to see a gigantic snake pop out of every tiny corner, or a curse fly their way at any given time, but nothing happened. They reached the landing on the other side on jelly legs and with racing hearts. Their breathing was hectic and their senses put on high alert as the stunned quiet of the room forced them to break out into a sweat and become more then a little paranoid.

They slowly and deliberately turned around and surveyed the room as they made their way backwards towards the others. They met in the center, where they stopped in their tracks, looking as rigid as the statues of the great serpents which festooned the room, but their eyes were moving wildly around, still searching for any sign of movement.

"He's not here," Heidi said after a couple of tens moments. The sound of her voice echoed in the silent chamber and made the hearts of her two companions stop with a jolt, as a cold tremor ran down their spines.

"Sorry," she muttered softy.

Neville let out a long, shallow breath, as he felt his heart start beating wildly in his chest, and he tried in vain to calm it. Diana took a few deep breaths and then turned towards her other two companions.

"So, what now?" she asked her voice withheld just a little bit of the fear that she was still having trouble discarding.

"Well, since plan A didn't actually go so well," Heidi started, but Neville interrupted her.

"Plan A? What was plan A?"

"Plan A was finding the bastard in the Chamber and taking care of him right here and now, but since he is clearly not here," she waved her arms around the empty room, "we have to go with plan B, which is a little bit more complicated then A."

"Meaning?" Diana asked eagerly.

"Meaning that, we have to force the bastard to come into the Chamber, so we can then take care of him."

"How are we gonna do that?" asked Neville.

"It's not as easy as plan A, mind you, but it's not that hard either. We have to trick him into thinking that we are going to go kill his little pet basilisk tonight," she stated. "The perpetrator, if he is dumb, will come directly to the chamber of fear that he might lose his pet snake."

"And if he is smart?" asked Neville.

"Then he'll wait a while before coming to the chamber and checking on his pet, probably sometimes around nightfall," Heidi answered.

"Are you sure he's gonna come?" Diana asked.

"Yes, I'm sure," Heidi replied confidently. "If he's smart, he's arrogant and will come running to the challenge, and if he's dumb, he's dumb and will come running to his pet. And I'm leaning more towards the smart person, seeing as he managed to get away with petrifying so many people. And with the right motivation, even the smartest people can be coned quite easily, especially if we don't give him enough time to think things through."

"So, what's the plan?" Diana asked.

"We have to start a riot," Heidi answered. "Bring the school in a stage of panic, and leave no doubt in the perpetrator's mind that we _will_ kill his little pet tonight. And of course that we know where the chamber is and what we're dealing with. We have to seem brash and unreasonable, and we most definitely need to get the teachers involved."

"Why the teachers?" Diana asked.

"Because, as I've said, we need to give the bastard as little time to think as possible, and mount the pressure on him, force him to act, and what better way to do that then by having the whole teacher body on his back and the threat of exposure hanging above his head."

"So, how do we do it?" Diana asked, a slight trace of impatience clouding her voice.

"Why, we get into a fight with Malfoy, of course," Heidi said amusedly.

"We what?" Diana asked confused.

"We don't know who the perpetrator is," Heidi explained. "And even if we did, we wouldn't want him to know, because then he'd really have to be dumb to stick around and wait for us to unmask him, so, we get into a fight with someone who we are certain isn't the perpetrator and accuse him of being such."

"And you honestly think Malfoy is not the perpetrator?" quizzed Neville sarcastically.

"Yes, Neville, Malfoy is 100% not the perpetrator," Heidi assured. "He's too dumb to be!" Diana and Neville sniggered at hearing that, while Heidi patiently went on to explain her plans. "So, as I was saying, we need to get into a fight with Malfoy, and threaten to expose his little scheme, and we need as many witnesses as we can get, including a teacher. I'm thinking sometimes after or before dinner, since we've already missed lunch." Heidi leveled Neville with a hard glare and said. "Neville, _you_ have to be the one doing the threats."

Bothe Neville and Diana turned to give her confused and doubtful looks.

"Why Neville?" asked Diana.

"Because, as I've mentioned earlier, we need to seem brash and unreasonable, and pardon my saying, but you for one," she pointed at Diana, "have a reputation for being brash, so you going up to Malfoy and threatening him wouldn't be anything new, and most of the students know that I physically assaulted him a few months ago, so that wouldn't seem to brash either. But the quietest and seemingly harmless of the team starting up a fight would look so out of place. That will definitely be enough to convince people that we mean business, including our Slytherin pray. The question is, are you up for the part Neville?"

Diana and Heidi turned to look expectantly at Neville, while the plump boy squirmed slightly as he thought things over.

Was he up for the part? A cowardly little boy like him picking on Malfoy? For Hermione? Of course he was! What kind of friends would he be if he just stood around while the girls did all the dirty work?

"_Yes," he answered feeling more determined the he had in his whole life. "Yes I am!"_

_End of Flashback_

-------

After that, they had sought out Malfoy and threatened him, like they established, and had gone down directly to the chamber to wait and see if the perpetrator would actually come. And now, after nearly four hours of nothing but tedious wait, the two kids were beginning to lose faith, and just when they were about to give up on the whole incident and go and get Heidi from the chamber, a light flashed faintly from above, signalizing that someone had opened the entrance to the Chamber.

Diana and Neville sat upright and pointed their wands at the entrance, ready to curse whoever was coming at a moment's thought.

No footsteps, or sliding noises, or anything of the like was coming from the eerie silence from above and the faint light disappeared completely, leaving the tunnel engulfed in a mantle of darkness. The two began to worry, thinking that the perpetrator might had seen through their plan, but a moment later, they heard a stirring coming from the bones of small animals which were spread across the floor, and a soft _crack_ confirmed their suspicion that someone had walked inside.

Diana braced herself and stepped out from behind the rock; her wand fixed on the entrance to the chamber, and shouted "LUMOS!"

A brilliant beam of light illuminated the previously dark room, and the two kids had to momentarily close their eyes and blink a few times in order to let heir eyes adjust to the blinding light. What they saw before them, took them completely by surprise.

"_You_?!" Diana asked bewildered.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10: The Heir of Slytherin**

"_You_?!"Diana choked out as she regarded the person in front of her with disbelief. "You're the Heir of Slytherin?"

"Me," drawled the cold, unsympathetic voice of Ginny Weasley who had a superior smirk carved on her young face.

The red haired Weasley wasted no time in pulling out her wand and shouting "NOX!" and the room was engulfed in darkness once more.

"Expeliarmus!" cried Diana pointing her wand in the direction she had last seen the Weasley girl.

"Stupefy!"

A jet of red light came hurtling at Diana with frightened accuracy, and she barely managed to jump out of the way.

That seemed to break Neville back into action, and he two jumped out from behind his rock and shouted "LUMOS!" The two stared wildly around, wands bared and ready to strike upon sight.

"There!" shouted Diana. Neville turned to see the Weasley girl running down the tunnel towards the chamber. "Come one!" prompted Diana and the two set of in pursuit of the first year.

"Expeliarmus!" they both cried, hoping to catch her at lest with one of the spells, but the girl cast a shield which rendered their attacks useless.

"Stupefy!" she snarled at them and dove behind a corner.

The two sidestepped the curs and dashed after her, just in time to see the first year disappear inside one of the small tunnels which were adorning the main tunnel's walls. They both ran after her without a second's thought, blood pounding in their ears and adrenaline rushing through their veins.

Neville for one didn't want to believe it one bit that the sweet shy first year was responsible for setting the Basilisk on the students. But he couldn't deny the fact that she was here, and hadn't denounced the accusations which Diana had thrown her way, but had chose to run instead, looking even more guilty then she already seemed.

The tunnel broke up in two a short while away, and the duo weren't exactly sure which way the first year had gone, so Diana shouted: "You take the left!" and ran pass him and through the right turn, while Neville dashed for the left one, praying with all his might that he'd be able to find Ginny first and get the chance to ask her why she had done all of this.

--------

"Albus! Albus!" Minerva came sprinting down the hall, looking positively dejected and didn't stop up until she was right in front of the old headmaster, where she allowed herself a moment's rest in order to catch her breath.

"Minerva what has happened?" asked a concerned looking Dumbledore, after all, there wasn't much that could put the Transfiguration's teacher in such a desperate state.

"Ginevra - Weasley," she said between pants. She took a deep breath in an attempt to calm herself and muttered in a slightly more composed voice. "Her brothers came to me and said that she had gone missing not long after I had locked the students in their common room, Merlin only knows how those three got out."

Dumbledore looked grimly at his two teachers. "Is anyone else missing?" he asked anxiously.

"No, not from Gryffindor tower," Minerva answered.

"Minerva, have Filius and Pomona check the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs," he told McGonagall, then he turned to the Potions master and said. "Severus, check the dungeons and see if any of your students are missing," he instructed. Dumbledore needn't have bothered to say anything, for Snape was already making his way towards the dungeon's staircase, without a back glare.

------

Diana came sprinting out of the tunnel and nearly knocked into the wall on the other side. She looked around desperately, trying to determine whether the Weasley girl was anywhere nearby, when she came across a strand of long red hair which turned sharply around a corner and out of sight.

"Hey, you!" she rushed after the girl, like a raging Hippogriff and nearly got hit with a stunner for her trouble.

"That's cheating," she accused, to which the red haired girl just gave a light snigger and proceeded to throw a fast succession of stunners her way before resuming her dash down the tunnel.

Diana thanked the heavens for Augusta Longbottom and her winter training, which had taught her more then just how to cast a proper shielding charm, as she blocked the oncoming curses and countered with a stunner of her own.

"Stupefy!"

The first year turned to cast a lazy Protego charm at it, and was unpleasantly surprised when the shield crumbled under the power of the spell, forcing the red head to duck out of the way.

"How troublesome," the Weasley girl said as she picked herself off the floor. "I thought you were just a useless little sidekick that the two geeks hung around out of pity, like the fat kid."

"What?" asked Diana incredulously.

Ginny graced her with a taunting smirk.

"Well, that was my first impression of you," she replied smoothly. "I mean, honestly, why would they keep you around? You were clearly not smart enough to hang out with them! You're lazy, brash, and have quite a big mouth – not the ideal friend, now, are you?"

"Ideal friend?" Diana asked sounding skeptical. "_You_, have the _nerve_ to brag to me about _the ideal friend_? _You_ who've terrorized the entire school up until now, including your _friends_ – if you even have any that is! _You_ dare to come and brag about friendship to _me_? You really have a lot of nerve you know that."

The first curse came hurtling at Ginny like a hammer and the girl barely had time to jump to safety before another one flew her way.

"What about you?" asked Diana as she charged at the red-haired. "Why such disregard towards your friends?"

"My _friends_?" the girl gave a humorous laugh. "They're not _friends_! They're puppets, little mindless toys the whole bunch of them," she spat in disgust. "Stupefy!" she shot another stunner at Diana and, taking advantage of the girl's temporary distraction, she dashed forward.

"Protego!" Diana brushed aside the hastily shot spell and cried: "Flipendo!" which actually hit, throwing the red-head first-year up against a wall.

"My _friends_," Diana said while making her way up to the other girl, "like me, despite the fact that I'm not as _smart _as they are; they like me for who I am – something that you'll never have if you keep on going the way you are now."

Ginny slowly picked herself off the floor, rubbing at her aching back, and turned to give Diana a questioned look.

"But you don't like it...that fact that you're not as smart as they are? Makes you feel slightly inferior, doesn't it?"

Diana's mouth twitched ever so slightly, but it was enough to bring a sly smile on Ginny's face.

"Tell me, _girl_," she began as she straightened herself up. Diana pointed her wand threateningly at her.

"You better not move or I'll-"

"Does it hurt," Ginny asked in a baby-like voice, "when you look at them and realize that you're never gonna reach up to their level? That for the rest of your life, you'll be looked upon as nothing more then that unsuccessful twin, the one who wasn't blessed with as much talent as her sister?" The red haired strolled confidently closer to the now silent second year.

Diana had an unreadable expression on her face, and her wand was now lowered to the ground, as if in surrender; her eyes were turned away from the first year, and seemed like they had been glued to spot down her right, and her poise was as rigid as Hermione's had been the night when the kids has found her on the marble ground of the second floor corridor.

The first year drew closer till she was mere inches from her face; a wicked smile adorned her young visage as she leaned in to whisper quietly in her ear:

"Do your parents ever say that they wished you would be just a little bit more like your sister?"

Something snapped inside Diana the instant she hear those words, and in the next moment, the first year found herself knocked backwards as a fist collided painfully with her right cheek.

The red-haired found herself hyperventilating as she continued to deliver two more blows at the first year's face. Ginny stumbled backwards, and fell hard on the concrete floor, nearly smacking her head on the tunnel wall.

"My parents," Diana practically spat with rage, "HAVE NEVER ONCE COMPARED ME TO MY SISTER!"

No, _they_ hadn't compared her to her sister, but she had. She'd always know that Heidi was the better one of the two, after all, she was smart, she was athletic, a good cook, she was less of a troublemaker then Diana was, and of course, she was the prettiest out of the two. Diana sometimes wondered why was it that, despite the fact that they were twins, she had red hair and hazel eyes and her sister had black hair and green eyes. Well, she didn't actually mind the hair, but the eyes she hated, and even the name, not to mention the fact that her sister had the largest chest out of the two (she'd asked).

The sudden outburst and the fact that the second year was advancing towards her like a mad bull, wand bared threateningly at her, scared Ginny more then she'd like to admit, and in a rush of panic, she pulled out her wand and shot the first curs that came to her mind: "STUPEFY!"

"Stupefy!" snarled Diana, still overcome by anger.

The two beams of red light collided in the air and blew up in a shower of sparks, while Ginny hastily jumped to her feat and pointed her wand towards the ceiling.

"BOMBARDA!"

She cried and briskly ran in the opposite direction, while the floor of the chamber gave a violent shake and millions of tiny bits and pieces of the ceiling came crumbling down, effectively creating a wall between the two red-heads.

When the ground stopped shaking, Diana pulled herself to her feet and turned to throw a dejected glare at the mount of rocks which had now covered up the path towards the chamber.

"WEASLEY!" she shouted, but no sound came from the other side. "I'LL GET YOU!" she promised and turned to study the walls.

There were about thousands, if not millions of ways in and out of the main tunnel's walls, and she wasn't sure which one to take. Her best chance was if she took a path which led her around the pile of rocks and back onto the main track, but god only knew where half of those tunnels lead, after all, they hadn't had the time to check them out. But she couldn't stay here and wait for the culprit to get to her sister, or Neville, she had to do _something_!

So, she closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and then marched up to the tunnel which was right in front of her, hoping for the best.

------

Neville had been running for over ten minutes with no sigh of his target or an exit whatsoever.

Contrary to the main tunnel, this small one had absolutely no openings in the wall, it was like one small little passageway in the center of the mountain, dark as the moonless night, and cold as the cells of Azkaban. The only thing that kept Neville from panicking was the small light which was coming from the tip of his wand, and a steal determination to get to the bottom of this whole Chamber mystery, and maybe clear up Ginny's name.

His foot suddenly splashed against cold water, making his steps echo in the eerie silence of the tunnel. His breath caught in his throat, his heart started racing at 100 miles/hour and his ears squinted around for the faintest of sounds.

His eyes narrowed as he suddenly caught sight of a faint glow from ahead. It was no bigger then the light of a candle, which's fire, seemed to be on the verge of running out, but it was still _there_!

A sudden feeling of hope burst up in Neville's chest as he began sprinting towards the faint glow of the candle which suddenly began growing larger and larger, up until it became an opening of emerald light. An opening which led right to the imposing figure of Salazar Slytherin, and his massive Chamber, bedecked with statues of snakes with narrowed silver eyes and sharp bared fangs.

"Neville!" Heidi called out to him from besides the final pillar. "How did you get here?"

"Heidi, is she hear?" Neville asked anxiously.

"She?" questioned Heidi confused.

"Ginny Weasley!" Neville said in a haste. "She's the Heir of Slytherin! We waited at the entrance to the tunnel like you said, and she came down! We had her, but she tricked us, and then ran into a tunnel and we chased her, and the tunnel split in two and Diana took the right side and I took the left and I've been running like mad for the past ten minutes and I ended up here!" he finished sounding slightly confused.

"Ok," Heidi nodded. "I got it. Well, as long as you're here, you might as well help me ambush her."

"Right," Neville nodded fervently. "But, what are we gonna do with here?" he asked worriedly.

"Why, we take her to Dumbledore of course," answered Heidi. "Isn't that what we agreed on doing?"

"Ok," Neville nodded. "So, what do we do?"

--------

At long last Ginny Weasley managed to reach the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets and stopped in front of the massive door in order to catch her breath.

The Potter girl proved to be a tad more troublesome then he had anticipated. But, then again, it was clear from the start that the whole thing was a trap, he had deduced as much, what he hadn't thought of was the fact that the blasted trio had actually planed on ambushing him in the chamber. He had expected them to try and catch him in the bathroom, but instead two of them were waiting for him at the entrance of the chamber, while Heidi (the boss of the operation, he was sure of that) was nowhere in sight.

Could she be waiting for him at the other side of the door? No, she couldn't be _that _dumb as to expect to be able to catch him with the Basilisk rooming around, now could she? Or maybe she didn't know where the basilisk was, although it was painfully obvious, and he knew for a fact that the girl was smart.

A sudden stir from within interrupted his mussing, as the host of his spirit slowly opened her eyes to gaze right into the green gems of the serpents which concealed the entrance to the chamber.

"Where am I?" asked the baffled voice of Ginny Weasley.

"Go back to sleep you useless girl," snapped a cold unsympathetic voice.

Ginny suddenly felt herself engulf by a blinding darkness, which pulled her back into the deepest oceans of her soul and tried to force her back into a sleep induced state.

"You won't get away with this Tom!" she screamed desperately trying to fight the darkness, but to no avail, in a matter of seconds, her eyes closed and the world became lost to her once more.

"I already have," a young man, with jet-black hair and cold black eyes said in a slight chuckling voice as he gazed upon the slumbering figure of the first year with malice.

The figure turned back towards the chamber's entrance and decided that he had wasted enough time mussing around, while the Potter and Longbottom spawn were still on his tail.

"_Open_," he hissed in a soft chilling voice, and watched entranced as the two serpents slowly parted to reveal the entrance to his beloved chamber.

-------

Heidi and Neville heard a sudden shriek as the chamber's doors parted in order to grant entrance to whoever was on the other side. The two readied themselves for and attack as they waited for the Weasley girl to make her appearance.

"Heidi Potter!" the child-like voice of the first year resounded throughout the whole Chamber. "Why don't you come out so we can speak," the voice drawled, "face-to-face?"

For a split second, Heidi considered ignoring the request, but then remembered that she had Neville with her, whose presence the first year wasn't aware of, and stepped out from behind the final pillar.

She saw the Weasley girl standing calmly in the middle of the road, while giving her a calculative look.

"I can't believe you're actually in here," the first year suddenly said.

"So, you thought I was bluffing when I threatened Malfoy?" Heidi asked unsure of what she meant.

"No, I thought you weren't as stupid as to choose this precise location as your final attempt at an ambush," she said sounding disappointed. "Honestly, I thought you were smarter then that!"

"Why?" questioned Heidi. "You thought I would be scared of the Basilisk?"

"What ever do you mean?" The girl asked doing a poor impression of playing the confused little girl.

"I know the Basilisk's hiding inside that statue over there," Heidi pointed at Slytherin's statue, "so quit playing dumb!"

"I shell confess that I find myself intrigued," the red-haired said. "Why did you let me come this far if you knew that the Basilisk was located here?"

"Because I'm a Parselmouth," said Heidi in a triumphant tone. "You summon your snake and he won't know who to listen to."

"Yes, that might be the case," Ginny agreed. "If I were to order him to attack you," she gave a malicious smile. "_But the boy_," she hissed in Parseltongue as her eyes trailed towards the pillar where Neville was hiding. "_Speak to me, Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts Four_."

Heidi's breath caught in her throat as she turned desperately towards the place Neville was hiding and shouted "Neville RUN!"

"SILENCIO!"

A jet of energy collided with Heidi's back and made her stumble on her feet.

Neville, who had been patiently waiting for the right time to ambush the first year turned towards Slytherin's statue with a jolt and stared transfixed at the place, watching how the mouth of the sculpture parted slowly, up until it became a gigantic hole and something could be seen stirring inside.

He was snapped out of his trance by Heidi's sudden scream, and then he realized with a jolt that the thing emerging from the black hole was the Basilisk. He hastily backed up against the wall and darted through a tunnel.

"_Kill him_!" Ginny ordered the Basilisk then returned her attention towards Heidi, who was apparently shouting at him, though no sound seemed to be coming out of her mouth.

"I've cast a silencing charm on you," she informed her, though by the look in Heidi's eyes she could deduce that the other girl already knew this...that and the next thing that Ginny said, just to spite her. "And you can't de-spell it since you haven't learned to cast the spells wordlessly."

Heidi's features contorted into a nasty sneer as she brought her wand to her throat. Something silver shot out of its tip, and collided with the girl's neck.

"You really think so?" Heidi asked sounding smug.

"How...?" Ginny tried asking, but she was suddenly forced to duck out of the way, as a fast succession of stunners were hurtled at her.

-------

Neville ran as fast as he could throughout the vast tunnel, well aware of the hissing creature which was slowly closing in on him.

_I have to get him away from Heidi_! he through as he quickened his pace. _I'm not gonna lose another friend!_

Neville reached into his pocket and hurriedly pulled out the sound generating device they had bought from Diagon Alley which was set on roster and switched it on.

The sound of a roster hooting proudly at the first ray of sunlight echoed throughout the whole chamber and soon after, the distressed hisses of the basilisk mingled in the air to create a dreaded symphony of despair.

Neville twirled around hoping that the mighty beast had closed his eyes even for a split second, and was met with the sight of the serpent trashing around in agony and banging his head on the chamber's walls, eyes shut tight in pain.

For a split second, Neville pitied the enormous creature and was tempted to just leave and let the creature be, but then he remembered the rigid for of Hermione lying stiffly in a hospital bed and all remorse for the creature vanished in the blink of an eye. He trusted his wand up in front of him and shouted "BOMBARDA!" right at the creatures face.

The serpent gave a pained hiss and lung forward in agony, determined to strike down the one which was causing it so much pain, and knocked head-first into Neville's surprised form, sending his flying into the wall, and knocking the device which reproduced animal voices out of his hand. The tiny gadget fell with a muffled thump on the ground, and suddenly, the chamber was engulfed in silence once more.

Neville hastily picked himself off the floor and watched as the great serpent swayed on the spot, its eyes were burned out of its face thanks to the blasting hex that Neville had fired earlier, and then it lifted its head high and brought out its tongue, tasting the air around.

It hissed, baring its fangs at Neville and lung at the boy who dove out of the way and rolled into a nearby tunnel.

Neville promptly jumped to his feet and ran through the tunnel, with the gigantic Basilisk at his heals.

_What now?_ Neville asked sarcastically. He had managed to blind the Basilisk, but that had only brought upon the beast's rage and now he had no more devices to distract the bloody thing with...but he did have a wand!

Neville cursed his stupidity as he spun on the spot and bared his wand at the mighty creature.

"BOMBARDA!"

-------

"No other student is missing from the other houses," said Flitwick.

"So only the Potter twins, the Longbottom spawn and the Weasley girl, all Gryffindors" drawled Snape. "My, my, McGonagall, what an ideal house you have there, such a worth example for the other students it is."

"I would appreciate it if you held your opinions to yourself Severus," McGonagall snapped. "I have more pressing matters to deal with then your petty obsession with house rivalry!"

Snape glowered at the elder woman who sent him a pointed glare and turned her attention towards Dumbledore.

"We have searched the entire castle and not a single trace of the children," the elder man stroke his beard pensively.

"Albus!" a voice called out to him, grabbing his attention.

"Augusta?!" the old wizard asked mystified.

A stride away from the entrance door, dressed in dark-green robes with a matching hat and neon pink purse stood Augusta Longbottom, stiff as a statue and eyes blazing with anger. Hagrid, the groundkeeper was standing a little to her left, looking worried at the older witch.

"What brings you to our school on such a late hour?" asked Dumbledore curiously.

"How dare you not warn me about my grandson's hospitalization?! I had to find out from my own grandson about this incident!" the woman snapped not bothering to acknowledge Dumbledore's question. She began making her way towards the group of people, and bypassed them in one swift motion heading for the stairs. "I am disappointed in you!" she said before beginning her ascend.

The surrounding professors shared a bewildered look and proceeded to follow the woman up the stairs.

"Neville wrote to you?" asked McGonagall.

"He did," the woman confirmed. "And he asked me to bring him a few things. Now tell me Minerva, why did my grandson end up in the hospital wing? And most importantly, why would he need a restoration potion of all things?"

"A restoration potion?" asked McGonagall.

"Was I not clear enough?" snapped Augusta. "Never mind, I'll find out for myself," the elder witch said as she came to the third floor landing and entered the corridor.

"Wait Augusta! Neville isn't in the hospital wing!" McGonagall said chasing after the old woman.

Augusta stopped in her tracks and gave McGonagall a hard glare. "Then where is he?" she demanded.

"The Potter twins and your grandson threatened Mister Malfoy to go and kill the Basilisk who is apparently residing in the Chamber of Secrets sometime around diner, and the three have been missing ever since," Snape answered.

"They've WHAT?" shrieked Augusta startling the other occupants of the corridor.

------

Diana finally managed to find her way back to the main tunnel and sighed in relief.

_Great, now all I have to do is find the entrance to the Chamber, kill the Basilisk and stun that first year bitch_, she though morosely.

She ran forward, and in a few minutes top, she was standing in front of the gigantic door with serpent embroider.

_Ready or not, here I come._

"_Open!"_

--------

"BOMBARDA!"

The snake hissed and dove out of the way while lunging at Neville with his fangs bared.

Neville panicked when he saw the gigantic fangs and shot a blasting hex at the creature which struck the beast's fangs and lung it backwards a few strides. The creature however recovered and made another wild dash towards him, throwing the boy backwards on the concrete floor. The impact nearly knocked him unconscious and his wand flew out of his hand, but luckily, the snake had managed to bangs its head against the walls, and was swaying on the spot befuddle, with its head spinning from one spot to the other.

Neville took advantage of the creature's distraction to jump into a nearby tunnel an out of sight, but, unfortunately, this tunnel was sealed with a thick metal bar.

_Bullocks_, he cursed as he slowly turned around to come face-to-face with the frightening sight of the Basilisk's blown up head and bared venomous fangs.

He sank to the floor cowering in fright, eyes haphazardly spinning and hands feeling around, searching for any kind of weapon which could help him defeat the monster. He spotted his wand laying a few strides away, at the entrance of the tunnel, but there was not enough space left between the wall and the Basilisk's massive form for him to reach up to it.

Just when he was about to give up and resign himself to his fate, his hand brushed against a cold edgy surface.

He looked down.

A gleaming silver sword with rubies the size of small eggs was lying neatly on the floor beside him.

Now where did that come from?

Neville took one look at the sword and then another at the face of the hideous Basilisk which was just inches away from him.

In a swift motion, he took a firm grip of the sword and trusted it upwards, straight in the mouth of the mighty beast. The blade cut right through the beast's scull and emerged on the other side of its head, covered in the thick blood of the creature.

The Basilisk gave on last agonizing shriek and slithered to the floor, nearly squashing Neville in the process, had it not been for the fact that its poisonous fangs scratched the surface of the metal bar and remained entangled in its thick surface, leaving the head of the beast suspended in midair.

Neville sighed in relief and took a few deep breaths to calm his erratic breathing, then he pulled the sword out of the beast's mouth and, careful as to not get scratched by the poisonous fangs, he exited the tunnel and took a hold of his wand and hastily made his way back through the tunnel.

There was still the perpetrator to be deal with, and he had left Heidi alone with her.

-------

"Stupefy!" cried Heidi as she ducked out of the way of a stunner.

"Just because you've learned a few spells doesn't mean you're strong enough to beat me little girl!" Ginny snapped as she conjured a shield to block the upcoming spell.

"A first year calling me little girl, don't you think that's a big giveaway for your cover?" Heidi asked a she tried to throw another stunner, but was forced to use a Protego instead as a full body bind was hurtled her way.

"Who are you?" Heidi asked as she shot another stunner.

"You haven't been able to figure that one out now have you?" The Weasley girl said in a taunting voice. "Though it really is not that hard."

The red haired fired a fast succession of spells at Heidi, forcing her to hide behind a pillar.

"Well, my first guess would be Voldemort," Heidi said and bent down to throw a rock towards her right.

Ginny smirked and fired a stunner towards the right side of the pillar, hoping to get Heidi, and was surprised when said girl emerged from the left and threw a stunner back at her.

"Come on, you'd actually fall for the oldest trick in the book," Heidi taunted as Ginny summoned a shield to counter the stunner.

"One can never be to precautions," Ginny said calmly, though the smile had dropped from her face.

While Heidi's stunners were weaker then Diana's, the girl made up for it in speed and tactic, and Ginny's body was already tired, the useless girl didn't look like she'd last for much longer, so Tom had to act fast and win this duel before the first year fainted from magic exhaustion.

"Sectumsempra!" he snarled and then proceeded to shoot a nonverbal spell at her.

Heidi cast a Protego charm to block the spell, and was shocked speechless when the shield crumbled underneath the weight, canceling it, and she was hit with the full-body-bind which came right after the spell.

She fell to the floor rigid as a statue.

A few moments later, the smug face of Ginny Weasley came into her line of view.

"I declare myself disappointed by your performance tonight," Ginny said trailing her wand on her. "But you see, it's understandable," she assured, "because you were too emotionally involved for your own sake. You were too anxious to get revenge for the sake of your friend that you didn't actually consider all the factors at hand, nor the fact that you were too week to take me on by yourself."

Ginny began circling around her up until she reached her face, where she bent down on her knees and stared into her jaded eyes. Thant's when Heidi noticed the flicker of red amongst the ocean of brown, and knew for a fact that this was Voldemort she was dealing with.

"You see, that's why I came down here," Ginny said. "I knew you - _all_ of you, weren't at your best tonight. You thought that by giving me less time to think I'd act rash and make a mistake," she slowly reached out and trailed her finger down Heidi's soft cheek. "Did you ever stop to think that maybe _you_ didn't have enough time to think things over either? Because I most certainly did," Ginny assured smirking down at her. She leaned in closer to whisper in her ear "And you're not gonna get me."

A flicker of gold caught Ginny's eyes and she reached towards Heidi's neck and trailed her hand across the chain of a golden necklace.

"What have we here?" she asked intrigued and she smiled nastily when she saw Heidi's eyes widen.

"Let's have a look," she said and pulled on the golden chain which moved slowly out of her robes to reveal a golden necklace in the shape of a locket on which an "S" was imprinted in green ink.

Ginny's eyes grew comically wide as she gazed upon the small piece of jewelry. She knew what it was instantly, she could feel it, but how had Potter managed to obtain it?

"How did you-"

"Ger your hands off my sister!" a voice boomed from the other side of the room, and before Ginny could even process what was going on, a stunning spell hit her square in the chest, knocking her unconscious and throwing her a few good feet away from Heidi.

Heidi felt the spell lift off her, and she hastily made her way up to her feet.

"Diana, where have you been?" she asked, wand pointed at the fallen figure of Ginny Weasley.

"Trapped inside some tunnel or another. Have you seen Neville?" Diana asked.

"Oh, my GOD, NEVILLE," Heidi all but forgot about the Weasley girl and rushed off towards the tunnel in which she'd last seen the chubby boy, only to knock head first into him.

Heidi was hurtled backwards from the impact while Neville dropped his sword and wand in favor of grabbing a hold of the girl in front.

"Heidi! You're ok!" he cheered and pulled the girl into a bear hug.

"Look who's talking, I didn't have to face a wild Basilisk," Heidi countered.

Neville pulled back and smiled broadly at her. "I managed to kill the Basilisk," he said. "I don't know how I did it, but I did it, and-"

"And that's all that matters," Heidi said.

"Where's Diana?" Neville suddenly asked.

"Over here," Diana waved. The red-head was currently preoccupied with tying up the unconscious first year and pocketing her wand.

"Looks like everything went according to plan down here, let's hope everything's alright up there as well," Diana said.

Her words seemed to awaken a sudden spark of excitement in the other two, because they hastily picked up their wands and sword and made their way towards her in a swift motion, they then hurled the Weasley girl on Neville's back while Diana took the bloodied sword from Neville, and ran towards the exit of the Chamber, hearts beating loudly and a glimpse of hope and triumph echoing in their footsteps.

--------

**READER'S CHOICE!!!**

Who do you want Neville paired up with? It can be any girl except Hermione and the twins. My top candidates would be Ginny and Luna, but if you guys want someone else, I might give it try. (Just, no OC please! I don't feel like introducing any original character here.)


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11: The FCNP Project**

Diana, Heidi and Neville exited the second floor bathroom with the unconscious form of Ginny Weasley in their arms.

"Finally out," Diana cheered in relief as she lowered the red-head first-year on the ground.

"Longbottom! Potter!" McGonagall's voice boomed from the other side of the corridor.

The kids turned their head towards the sound of the angry voice and saw, not just McGonagall, but also Dumbledore, Sprout, Snape and Flitwich running towards them.

"Well, crap," said Diana and bolted for the stairs.

"RUN!" said Heidi as she too let go of the Weasley girl and ran after her sister, Neville was quick to follow.

"Stop you three!" McGonagall shouted and tried to stun them, but the kids rounded the corner and stormed up the stairs, not stopping until they'd reached the third floor landing, where they ran all the way up to the hospital wing and threw the door open in one swift motion, startling the people inside.

Standing in the middle of the room, staring like she'd just saw a bomb go off right before her eyes, was none other then Hermione Grange, looking as un-petrified and healthy as Madam Pomfrey which was standing a few strides to her left and Augusta Longbottom which was sitting on the bed to her right.

"Hermione!" Diana cried in an ecstatic tone and quick as a ghost she had crossed the room and lung herself at the bushy-haired girl which fell down to the floor with a loud thump.

Hermione gave a squeak of distress as she hit the floor and Madam Pomfrey shrieked: "What do you think you're doing child! That girl's barely recovered from her petrifiction, she doesn't need you to add wounds to her already week system!"

But nobody heard her, as Heidi too, jumped on top of the two girl, eliciting another moan of discomfort from Hermione.

"Both of you off! Right now!" Hermione snapped.

The twins each gave their friend a peach on the cheek then they lifted themselves off her. Neville held out his hands in order to help Hermione up, which the girl accepted gratefully.

"Where have you been?" Hermione asked when she was on her feet. "Everyone's been worried sick!"

"That's what I'd like to know!" Augusta Longbottom's angry voice drew the kids' attention.

"And I," said McGonagall, who had finally managed to catch up with the kids.

"I think it would be best if we continued this conversation in my office," Dumbledore said.

The three kids weren't smiling anymore; actually they looked rather dejected as they made their way out of the hospital wing and towards the spiral staircase, where they met Snape who was bringing Ginny Weasley's unconscious form to the hospital wing.

"We only stuned her!" Diana protested.

"Yes, but after we've de-spelled the stunner, the girl still wouldn't wake," McGonagall said.

"It's probably Voldemort's fault," Heidi guessed.

"Why would you say that?" asked Hermione.

"Because she had this little red glee in her eyes, and it was the same color that Voldemort had when I saw him in the Forbidden Forest last year," Heidi answered.

"Do you mean to tell me that Miss Weasley was possessed by you-know-who?" asked a worried looking McGonagall.

"Yes, I believe I just said that _Voldemort_ took possession of that girl in order to open the Chamber," Heidi confirmed.

The group of people stopped in front of a Gargoyle statue which was located on the fifth floor corridor.

"Lemon-drop" Dumbledore said and the statue jumped aside to reveal a small hole in the wall out of which's floor grew a spiral-staircase, which reached up towards the next floor.

Dumbledore stepped on one of the steps, and then the kids, McGonagall and Augusta followed his lead.

The spiral steps stopped before a door which led towards one of the weirdest rooms the kids had ever seen. All sorts of gadgets and gismos were adorning the walls, a desk was jammed against the wall opposite the door and a nest with a beautiful looking bird which's feathers were dyed in a flaming red color was happily perched on top of the nest.

The bird gave a melodious chirp as it saw them enter the office and rose from its nest, preferring to perk itself on Dumbledore's shoulder instead.

"Is that a phoenix, sir?" asked Hermione in aw.

"Yes, miss Granger, this is my trusty companion, Fawkes," Dumbledore said smiling merrily at the bird. "Now, if everyone could have a seat, we can begin this conference."

Dumbledore sat himself at his desk, and the kids noticed that six chairs were surrounding the large oak piece of furniture, which was packed with as much strange gismos as the rest of the room.

"So," Dumbledore began. "Missis Longbottom had been kind enough to share with us the amazing tale of how you kids discovered what was inside the Chamber, and as well as approximately where it might be located. She also happened to mention that you were supposed to come straight to me with this information and leave it in our care to locate the Chamber and the perpetrator."

Dumbledore paused to give the four children a piercing look.

"Why is it that you did not keep your words regarding the Chamber matter?" he asked with a cold, somewhat disappointed voice.

The four kids suddenly found their hands which were hanging loosely in their laps to be the most interesting thing in the world. Hermione was flushed with embarrassment as was Diana and Neville looked like a small helpless animal which had lost its voice to even cry in the face of danger, let alone carry a civil conversation.

Heidi was the only one whose brain was working in overload. The others wouldn't speak, that was a fact, maybe because they were too ashamed or just didn't know where to start, but it was clear their lips were sealed, so of course, she had to stand up for them...again. But how could she get out of this one...?

"Well," prompted Augusta when she saw that none of the kids were gonna take a stand. "Why didn't you go to Dumbledore like we agreed?"

Silence.

Augusta looked ready to ask again, but Heidi finally lifted her head up high and said:

"It's because it would have been no use to the Headmaster had we gone to him with so little information," she stated flatly.

"Why would you think that?" asked McGonagall.

"Because, we already suspected that the entrance to the Chamber was sealed with parcel-magic, so, even if we had told the Headmaster exactly where the Chamber was, he would have not been able to find it unless a Parseltoung opened it for him."

"I think you are underestimating our capacity to solve a simple matter of blowing up a portion of the wall," McGonagall said sharply.

"And dealing with a 20 stories high Basilisk," Heidi responded in the same sharp voice.

"I think a group of teachers is far suited to deal with the mater then a bunch of overconfident teenagers!"

Heidi snorted at that.

"However you want to put it, it still does not change the reality that you were unable to solve the mystery, in spite of the fact that you were presented with the same amount of clues as we were, even more, considering the fact that the first time the chamber was opened, you _both_ were in school!"

"That still does not explain why you went after the perpetrator on your own," Dumbledore said.

"Come now, the motive should be quite easy to understand," Heidi said in an arrogant tome. "We wanted revenge for our fallen comrade," she stated simply.

Hermione's head shot up at that, as did Diana's (who threw a questioning look her sister's was), and Dumbledore's (who had apparently expected a much more sly explanation from the girl).

"Up until yesterday, we had all the intention of coming and informing you of our progress the moment we found out where the entrance to the chamber was, and leave you to deal with the Basilisk and the Slytherin heir," Heidi said honestly. "Yesterday while Neville and I were helping the Weasley girl look for some notebook she'd lost, I accidentally discovered where the entrance to the chamber was and the two of us –" she pointed at Neville and herself "– decided to come straight to you (she pointed at Dumbledore) with the information – After we'd found my sister and Hermione of course, after all the hard work they've done, it seemed only fair that we'd tell them about our discovery first."

"Then Hermione's little accident occurred and ... and any trace of rational thought disappeared from my mind. That asshole attacked Hermione to spite us and we –_I_ fell right into his trap. I was blindly driven by revenge and didn't take the time to consider the wellbeing of my sister and Neville, and for that I am sorry," Heidi shot an apologetic look towards Neville and Diana, and then continued in a stubborn tone. "But I don't regret going down there! I don't care if you expel me; I won't regret looking that asshole in the eye and telling him exactly how I felt about him!" The ember eyed girl folded her arms across her chest and fell silently into her seat awaiting the adults' verdict.

Truth be told, Heidi had absolutely no idea what drove her to be honest with the people in front. Maybe it was because she was tired thanks to the day's events, or maybe because her mind had blacked out a few minutes ago after seeing that her plan had finally come to an end and now her worn-out brain was pressing her for a few moments of rest before it could work properly again, or heck, maybe she was tired of lying to get out of trouble (nope, it was definitely not that), but anyway, she had told the truth, and now it was too late to take back her words, so, might as well go along and see how it turned out.

"I confess myself sorely disappointed with your trail of actions," Dumbledore said after a few minutes of silence. "Understandable though they may be, I can not find it within myself to forgive this severe breach of school regulations. Not because you have failed to obey the school rules, but because you have jeopardized your own safety and that of your companions through your brash behavior, and I fear that if I do not take action now, next time might be too late. You three shell be suspended for one week and you will serve detention every night at eight starting tomorrow, up until the end of the school year. I hope this punishment will give you time to reflect upon your mistakes and the dangers which might have befallen upon you had luck not been on your side tonight. You may leave."

Neville, Diana and Heidi nodded numbly and rose to their feet, while Hermione looked like she was about to protest, but Diana and Heidi took hold of her and dragged her towards the door and out of the office before she could utter a single word.

"Why didn't you let me speak?" asked and irritated looking Hermione.

"Because that would have only served to dig up a grave for you as well," Heidi replied. "We were toast the moment we strolled down that stairs and threatened Malfoy, I knew they wouldn't expel us if we caught the perpetrator, but they were hardly gonna praise us for running head first into the Basilisk's lair for no good reason."

"But they suspended you!" Hermione protested.

"It's not that bad," Neville said. "Wait till Granny gets a hold of us."

That caused a wave of shivers to crawl down the four's back.

"Or our parents," said Diana causing the other children to groan in misery.

"The one time when I decided to tell the truth and look where it gets me," Heidi said bitterly.

Hermione smiled approvingly at her and said. "It'll work better next time."

"Of course," Heidi assured. "Next time, I'll lie!"

Hermione shot her a disapproving glance.

"So, do you think it best to wait for your granny and McGonagall here and get the shouting over with or run and hope they never find us?" Diana asked.

Te four kids shared an uneasy look before mutely agreeing that it would be better not to try and tempt their luck any more and silently waited up until the two elder witches emerged from Dumbledore's office.

McGonagall let them off easily, by giving the _four_ of them and extra week of detention and promising Heidi a lifetimes ban of Quidditch if she didn't win the house cup, while Augusta took her time chastising the kids for their brashness and poorly executed (and very much flawed) plan and promised to whoop the floor with them the following summer when they came by to visit.

At last, around a quarter pas midnight, the kids finally managed to drag their fatigued bodies to bed and fall into a much needed dreamless sleep.

/////////////////////////////////-----

All except for Heidi.

What was it that deranged psychopaths liked about her anyways?

"Can we talk?" she tried to say, but the sound came out as something between a groan and a glower since her mouth was currently held hostage by Voldemort's demanding one.

Voldemort gave her another mind-blowing kiss, then pulled back slightly to give her a questioned look.

"And what is it that you want to talk about?" he asked smoothly, tracing the thumb of his finger over her cheek.

Heidi took a moment to consider his question. What was it exactly that she wanted to know? Oh, yeah...

"I'd like to know what your face looks like behind that hood for one," she suddenly leaped forwards, took a grip of his hood and lowered it from his face. Out came the head of a handsome sixteen year old boy, with neatly combed dark hair, alluring red eyes and aristocratic features.

Heidi gaped open-mouthed at him.

The figure raised a delicate brow, while a large smirk spread on his handsome face.

"Are you really Voldemort?" Heidi asked skeptically.

"Well, I imagine I look less frightening in a teenager's body, but to the extents of my knowledge I believe I am Voldemort." His voice had changed. No longer was it the chilling hissed sound she had become so accustomed with, now it had taken on a slight puerile tone, and his voice was much more smoother then Voldemort's had been.

"Hmm, why keep the hood on? Were you expecting to frighten me?" Heidi questioned as she gave the teen Dark Lord a slight push and slipped away from underneath him.

She rose to her feet and turned to give the teen a one-over. He was slightly less taller then the hooded figure in the forest had been, but then again, she had grown somewhat over the year. He was wearing dark pants and that was about all that could be seen underneath the long black coat.

He gave a slight chuckle, less frightening then Voldemort's cold laugh, but still somewhat unfitting for such a cute face.

"No, I had absolutely no intention of frightening you," the teen answered nonchalantly. "That was merely how you remembered me, and seeing as you hadn't tried up until now to see what exactly was underneath the hood, you were stuck with snogging the ugly version of me." While he was talking, he had strolled calmly forward, closing the distance between them, and was standing right in front of her.

"What exactly _are_ you, a figment of my imagination?" Heidi asked puzzled. "I mean, am I talking to myself or is this Voldemort screwing around with me?"

"Well, considering the possibility that I _am_ a _figment of your imagination_, I would definitely not know the answer to that, now would I?" was the vague reply. "But, if by some unfortunate occurrence of the universe, I _do_ happen to be Voldemort..." he gave a slight chortle. "Well, I wouldn't exactly admit to _that_, now would I?"

Heidi narrowed her eyes at him, and then gave a frustrated sigh. The truth was that there was absolutely no way of confirming if the apparition in front was Voldemort or just some twisted concoction of her own mind. Because if it _was_ Voldemort, she was sure the bastard would enjoy messing around with her head. But if it wasn't Voldemort, then this was a really bad joke her mind had decided to play on her.

_Actually maybe it isn't_, she decided after giving the boy another one-over. _He is hot_. Then something clicked in her mind.

"I've never seen your face!" Heidi countered sounding smug. "If this is really a figment of my imagination, then my mind couldn't have simply made up a face out of thin air! Especially considering the fact that it is a scientific fact that while sleeping one only dreams of places or people one has seen in real life! So, since my imaginative side of the brain is, theoretically, asleep, I couldn't have come up with your..._character_ on my own. So, that of course, leaves only the possibility of Voldemort screwing around with my head."

"Have you read the _Famous Prefects_ _from start till today_ book?" The boy asked nonchalantly.

"Yes, but what does that have to do with anything?" Heidi asked perplexed.

"Well, if I remember correctly, that book has a total of 900 and profiles of prefects, each profile being associated with a picture and description of the person's character. Let's not forget the, _oh so many_ people you've met or simply _bypassed_ every day. For all you know, I might actually be a student at this school and you've probably failed to notice me up until now."

Heidi glared at the boy. No matter how infuriating it might be to accept it, it didn't change that fact that the boy's arguments were legit. Still she couldn't help but argue against him.

"What about the voice? I'm sure I don't know it!" _Try to get out of this one punk_! She cheered mentally. Too soon it seemed as the boy countered with:

"Watch TV much?"

"But, but..." Heidi furiously searched her brain for another plausible pretext to keep arguing against the boy, but no mater how much she tried, her brain came up blank. "Why?" She finally asked not being able to make anymore sense of the matter. "Why would I take the image of a guy I hardly know and associate him with Voldemort of all people?"

"Well, I don't think your mind is acceptant of the idea of you kissing an _ugly_ deranged psychopath," the boy said reasonably.

Heidi lifted a delicate brow. "So, are you saying that my mind was _sooo_ traumatized about the fact that my first kiss was lost to an _ugly, deranged psychopath_ that it created a handsome, charismatic and likable character to take the place of the murdering psychopath as means to _alleviate_ some of the disappointment it felt?" she asked sarcastically.

"The pretty much sums it up," the boy said innocently.

Heidi spared him an amused glance.

"Are you saying that locks make so much of a difference to me?" she challenged.

"Obviously," the boy answered in a cynical tone.

"Hmm, sooooo, you're supposed to be something along the line of prince charming to me, right?"

"Probably," the boy shrugged and gave a non-committing nod.

"I thought prince charming was supposed to be blond," Heidi teased.

"Not necessarily," the boy answered. "Does it bother you?" he asked in the same teasing voice that Heidi had used earlier.

"Not in the least," Heidi answered while boring her emerald orbs into his scarlet ones. She slowly lifted her hands up to his face and began tracing its shape with her fingers up until she came across the mouth, where her hands stopped and her eyes remained locked upon, as if drawn to a magnet.

The pair of lips twitched into something closely resembling a smirk.

"Have my handsome features blown you so far away that it left you speechless?" the boy asked in an arrogant tone.

Heidi lifted her eyes to grace him with an annoyed glare. "You know, I liked you better when you didn't talk!" she snapped.

"Well, pardon my saying, but last I remember, _you_ were the one who wanted to _talk_," the boy huffed in mock-offence.

"True," Heidi agreed. "But I'm done talking," she said. "For now that is, because," she gave the boy a suspicious glare. "I don't really think you're a figment of my imagination, and I'm going to prove it!" she threatened.

"You don't say?" The boy challenged with a raised brow. "And how exactly are you going to prove that?"

"I'm out of arguments for tonight," Heidi admitted miserably. "But that doesn't mean I'm not gonna come back tomorrow with something!" she threatened.

"Very well," the boy nodded. "I'll be waiting."

And that was supposed to be the end of the conversation for the two... only problem was...

"How do I get out of here?" Heidi asked looking around. They were still in the Forbidden Forest.

"Aw, you want to leave me alone for the entire night? I'm hurt," the teen said.

Heidi glared at him. "Can't you go to sleep?" she asked.

"I sleep during the day," the teen stated.

"Well, I work during the day!" Heidi snapped. "And I have to be up for class tomorrow!"

"No, you don't, you've been suspended, in case you've forgotten," the teen pointed out. Heidi looked ready to argue, but the boy interrupted her by saying: "And even so, what does that have to do with me?"

"I can't sleep with you here!" Heidi grunted in annoyance.

"Of course you can," the teen said nonplused.

"I can't sleep on the floor!" Heidi said moodily.

"We can always go back to the castle," the teen suggested.

"It's a dang long walk," Heidi whined.

"Honestly woman, are you in a dream or the real world?" the teen asked exasperatedly and with a flick of his hand, the forest around them suddenly began to change shape. The trees molded into a room and the sky turned into a ceiling, and suddenly, Heidi found herself standing in the middle of the second year Gryffindor girls' bedroom. Only problem was, there was nobody else but the boy and her in the room.

"Where are all my roommates?" Heidi asked perplexed.

"Somewhere outside your head," the boy said sarcastically.

"Well that's perfectly fine by me!" Heidi snapped and then smiled nastily. "There are enough beds for the two of us!" she announced merrily and the boy cursed. "You sleep over there!" she said pointing to the first bed from the door.

The boy smiled at her and suddenly the shape of the room changed. The five beds which adorned the wall were replaced by a gigantic king-size bed with dark green sheets, seven fluffy pillows and silver hangings.

Heidi turned to give the teen a reproachful glare and snarled "Cheat!" in his direction.

The boy gave her and innocent look, which Heidi completely ignored in favor of climbing on the bed and building a line of sorts with the help of the five extra pillows and left one pillow for each on opposite sides of the bed. She turned to smirk triumphantly in his direction and said:

"That's your side," in a pleasant manor. "Cross the line and I'll toast your ass!" she threatened before sinking down into the silky sheets.

The teen dropped on the other side of the bed and turned to give her and amused look.

"You like playing hard to get, I presume," he said after a small pause.

"Of course!" Heidi answered. "Even prince charming has to work dang hard to grab my attention; else he can go straight to hell! Now if you'll excuse me, I want to sleep!"

With that said Heidi turned the teen out and concentrated on getting a goodnight's sleep. The teen never once tried to reach past the line of fluffy pillows she had built.

The next day Heidi woke up at six in the morning with the soul intention of getting ready to go to her first class. And then Hermione woke up... and reminded her of her suspension...and she cursed slightly before deciding that she'd rather not return to her bed and have to see that annoying teens' face again. So she went through her morning routine in a rush and stumbled down the stairs only to find Neville sitting in an armchair closely by the fire, still dressed in his pajamas and intently inspecting a piece of parchment.

"Hey there Nev, what's up?" Heidi greeted.

"Oh, hey there Heidi," Neville replied. "Ron's snores woke me up again this morning and when I came back from the bathroom I saw this parchment on the foot of my bed." He handed the piece of paper to Heidi. "It's from granny," he said.

Heidi gave Neville a questioned look, but the boy only smiled at her and beckoned her to read it.

_Dear Neville,_

_I just wanted to say that I have never in my life been more proud of you then I am today. I am of course very displeased with your carless actions and irrational thinking, but I am also amazed at your devotion towards your friends and the courage which you have displayed tonight at facing a Basilisk of all things! Your father would have been dead proud of you and I'm sure that your mother would have been too. Though that careless way of thinking has got to change, and fear not, because for the following summer I myself will make sure that you and your friends know the difference between a well executed plan and a suicide operation,! But until then, I wish you the best of luck with the rest of your school year._

_Love Granny._

_PS: You place one more toe out of line and I won't be as forgiving as I have been up until now!_

Heidi turned to give Neville a wide grin. "Looks like we have a rough summer ahead of us."

Neville couldn't help but agree. "I guess so."

Though the smile slipped of her face in the next moment and she turned a serious look in Neville's direction. "Neville, I wanted to ask you something about... your parents," Heidi said carefully.

Neville's smile instantly dropped off his face and he lowered his eyes to the ground, while nodding his head slightly.

Heidi took a deep breath and said: "Have you ever considered doing something about it? You know, about their condition?"

Neville's head shot up at this, a miserable look adorning his face. "I haven't," he admitted. "Uncle Algie and Granny have asked around for healers, or any sort of treatment that might have the slightest chance at curing them. Granny even went as far as to call in a few favors from an unspeakable at the ministry, but all to no avail. Up until I was five, the two did nothing but try and try and try to find something which might help my parents get better. Uncle Algie was always on the road, traveling to different countries and researching all kinds of stuff, I barely even knew him before my sixth birthday. Then my aunt put her foot down and said she'd leave him if he didn't stop with the silly trips. My granny gave up hope around the time too..." he sighed sadly.

"And I think I did too," he admitted. "I mean, I love my parents and all that, but there was no hope coming from any side, every clue we ever got was another disappointment, I just couldn't delude myself with believing that it will all be ok one day, I was getting tired," he sighed sadly. "And when they lost fait I just lost mine too," he finished in a small voice.

"But you haven't even tried," Heidi said sounding somewhat annoyed at his behavior. "You gave up without even trying! How can you lose hope in something when you didn't even believe in it to begin with?!"

"Because they didn't believe in it either!" Neville snapped. He rose up from his chair and started pacing the room while shouting: "I saw them, how they exchanged tired and unhopeful looks while they prepared for another useless journey to some useless place which had nothing for them! They knew it! That it was all in vain, yet they somehow managed to delude themselves in believed it would be possible to find a cure for my parents! And they kept telling me in that false tone of theirs that they will someday find something, but they never did! And I did myself a favor and decided to stop hoping for false miracles and start living my life!" He let out a deep and choked breath while blinking his eyes rapidly in an attempt to not cry. No! He was a big boy now, he had to be strong, he mustn't cry! He couldn't cry!

"You didn't even try!" Heidi snapped startling the blond boy. "Your uncle and grandmother tried their best, and failed, time and time again, but you," Heidi shot him a disappointed look. "You gave up without even a fight! Jesus Neville, how the hell did you end up in Gryffindor?!"

Neville stared at her with a god-smacked expression on his face. "Well, what was I supposed to do?" he snapped feeling offended. "Leave home and search around the world for a cure I already know never existed?" he asked skeptically.

"That's what I would have done!" snapped Heidi.

"Heidi that's enough!" Hermione and Diana came rushing down the stairs which led to the dormitories.

"Don't take what this dunderhead sais to heart Neville," Diana came to stand beside him and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"They haven't searched everywhere," Heidi snapped. "Your Granny, has she searched the Muggle world for a treatment?!"

"No," Neville said. "Come on Heidi, this is a wizarding illness!"

"Oh, so now you think that only wizards have to deal with insane people?!" Heidi asked cynically. "Well they don't!"

"Heidi, that's enough!" Diana snapped.

"No," Hermione intervened. "It isn't! Neville, I can't believe that you wizards never bother to check the Muggle world for anything! I mean honestly, did you know that wizards have no idea how to replace a dying organ while in the Muggle world vital organs had been successfully transplanted since the 1900!"

Neville gave Hermione a doubtful glance, not trusting what she said in the slightest.

"Ok, fine," Heidi sighed. "Screw the Muggle world, what about the wizarding world then?!" the girl challenged.

"What about it?" Neville asked defiantly.

"Your relatives gave up on finding a cure when you were five," Heidi explained. "Well, now you're thirteen! Seven years Neville! Seven long years of Magical evolution! Do you honestly want to tell me that you don't believe it possible that somehow, somewhere in the world someone might have invented a cure for the Cruicatus curs in all this long time?!"

Neville still didn't look convinced. "Well, if they had invented a cure, why not come forth with it?" he challenged.

"Gee, well, I don't know, why doesn't NASA come forth with all the bull they have developed throughout the years?" Heidi asked skeptically. The meaning to this statement was lost on the pureblood who turned to give Heidi a blank look. "Ah! Never mind!" the girl glowered.

"What she's trying to say," Hermione took over for Heidi, "is that they might have some personal reasons for not revealing the information."

"Like what?" Neville asked befuddled.

"Like profit," Diana supplied.

"Oh, stop trying to convince him," Heidi snapped. "You know what your problem is?" Heidi said as she turned her blazing eyes on the blond boy. "That fact that you're to much of a coward to admit that somewhere out there there might actually be a cure for your parents' illness, because you're afraid of building up hope just to be disappointed again, and _I understand that_!" Heidi assured when she saw that the boy was about to intervene. "Neville, I really do! But if you give up hope now, then what have you got left to live for? Have you got a reason for waking up in the morning and going to school? Or are you just doing that because it's what you're supposed to do, what others expect of you to do?"

Neville hung his head, his face a flushed mess and fresh tear were slowly starting to form in his eyes.

"Jesus, Neville, do you even have a reason to live?!" Heidi asked outraged.

Neville's eyes flashed in anger and he asked "Well, what about you? What's your reason?"

"I want to become a professional Quidditch player," Heidi answered nonplussed, surprising everyone around.

"A professional Quidditch player?" asked Diana doubtfully.

"Well, there's no point in asking what you want to become," snapped Heidi moodily.

"What's so wrong about wanting to have a family?!" Diana asked peeved by her sister's comment.

"Nothing," Hermione answered, hoping to avoid a fight between the two. "I want a family too!" she declared.

"Yeah, with _Ron Weasley_," Diana snapped sulkily.

"Well, excuse me for not liking biased blonds with a superiority complex and a hair fetish," Hermione huffed insulted.

"That's _sooooo_ yesterday's news!" Diana snapped. "I don't like that prick anymore!"

"Well, good riddance!" Hermione huffed.

"Yeah, too bad some of us can't gat over stupid crushes that easily," Diana snapped.

Hermione looked ready to smack Diana over the face, but settled instead to continue bickering with the red-head for another 15 minutes or so, while Neville watched on in amusement, his previous sulky mood gone.

"Those two are gonna kill each other someday," Heidi came to stand beside him.

"I doubt it," Neville said regarding the two with a fond glee in his eyes.

"Look Neville," Heidi started fidgeting on her feet and rubbing her hands nervously. "I'm sorry-"

"No, it's ok," Neville cut her off. "You're right," he said in a small voice, head slightly bowed. "I _did_ give up to soon, heck I didn't even try!" he sounded bitter and slightly disappointed. "But, what was I supposed to do? I was only a kid! I didn't know any better! I couldn't do any better then sit around and wait for others to do my job for me."

"Well, you're a big boy now," Heidi said softly.

Neville turned to give her a sad smile. "I'm still afraid," he admitted.

"Aren't we all?"

"I guess," Neville shrugged.

"You're not alone you know," Hermione said startling the blond boy. She and Diana had stopped their senseless bickering sometime after Neville had diverted his attention from them and were now standing a few strides away from him, with encouraging smiles spared on their face.

"If you decided to one day stop whining about your miserable life and start doing something to try and make it better, just know that you have friends on which you can rely on," Heidi said giving his arm a slight squeeze.

"That's not exactly my choice of words, but just remember that we're her for you Neville," Hermione said.

"Thanks guys...girls," Neville said flashing a grateful smile. The three girls smiled encouragingly at Neville and Hermione asked:

"So, does that mean that I can start planning our schedule for operation 'find a cure for Neville's parents'?"

Diana groaned while the other two tried and failed at stiffening a laugh. "That's a rather long name for the operation," the red-haired exclaimed drily.

"Not to worry," Hermione waved a reassuring hand. "We can abbreviate it to FCNP!"

For the second time that minute, Diana found herself groaning at the words of her curly-haired friend.

**AN**: I've opened up a pool on my profile page for you guys in which you can vote for who you want Neville to end up with. If you don't vote, then I'm just going to go and pick the girl with whom Neville has the most number of stories on FFN, which is currently: Luna with 617. Ginny is second with 218 and Hannah ranks third with 106, so, if you guys are impartial to the pairing, I'll chose Luna, if you vote, I'll chose whoever you want. (Right about now I have received one vote for Hannah and Ginny each (from reviewers which I will take into account), which is still a tie so, VOTE!)


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12: Sleeping Problems**

The first day of suspension turned out to be much more tiring then the kids had expected. Hermione left a few minutes after their talk with Neville, but not before making the other three promise her to start their research in the library. Then Wood came down and snatched Heidi away to the Quidditch pitch, taking advantage of her suspension (and his free period) and promised the girl that he'll extend her Quidditch practice to every time he had a free period this week (and the Quidditch pitch was not occupied by the other teams).

"No use in wasting precious time sitting around and hoping Heidi," Wood had said. "After all, Slytherin scored 220 points in their match with Ravenclaw. We have a lot to live up to!" He looked slightly stiff as he said this, and Heidi noted that he was far more critical and sarcastic of her performance then normal.

By the end of it all, Heidi drowsily made her way to the library only to find Diana with her nose buried in _Dragons from birth to adulthood_, and Neville reading _1000 magical Herbs and Fungi_.

"I thought we agreed that you were supposed to start researching spells!" Heidi snapped startling the two and causing madam Pince to give her a warning glare.

"Sorry," Diana mumbled. "We didn't know where to start."

"Typical," Heidi sighed and motioned for the two to follow her. "The herb book might be useful," Heidi said pointing at the book securely held in Neville's hands. "Though if you want to read anything about animals, I suggest you start looking at the properties of their blood, skin and so on which can be used in potion ingredients," she said to her sister.

Diana turned green in a matter of seconds and said she'd much rather concentrate on spells thank you very much.

"You can take care of the gory potion ingredients," the red head huffed.

"Fine," Heidi threw an annoyed look her way before dumping into her hands a book entitled _Most common Healing spells and the basic of Healing Magic_ which was a rather thick book. "You can start with that!"

Diana glared at her sister, but quietly made her way towards a table and started reading the book.

"Can I continue with this?" Neville asked indicating his book.

"Have you read that book before?" Heidi asked with a slightly raised brow.

Neville flushed and nodded his head.

"Then I suggest you start with something else," the brunet said and picked up _Rare Plants and their uses for Common Potions_ and handed it over to him. "This should be a good start!"

Neville nodded and went to sit beside Diana while Heidi proceeded to scoop the Potion section for an interesting title.

"Hi there," a voice coming from behind her made her jump slightly.

Heidi turned around to glare at the person who had startled her, an insult ready at the tip of her thong, which died the moment she laid eyes on the perpetrator.

"Diggory," she greeted with a dazzling smile. "What are you doing in the library," she asked; then mentally cursed herself for asking such a stupid question.

"I came to return a book and borrow a new one. Why else would I be in the library?" he answered very much amused causing Heidi to turn a scarlet red color.

"Don't you have class?" Heidi asked hoping to distract the boy from her previous dumb question.

"I have a free period," Diggory answered with a light smile. "I'm guessing you have one too?"

_Dang! Another stupid question_, Heidi though.

"No, I was supposed to have a full schedule till after lunch," Heidi answered.

"Then why aren't you in class?" Diggory asked slightly intrigued.

Heidi flushed a shameful red as she averted her eyes and answered. "I got suspended," and then mentally cursed herself for telling the truth.

"You got suspended?" Diggory asked concerned. "Why, what did you do?"

"Don't want to talk about it," she said grumpily as she began fidgeting on the spot.

"Oh, pardon my meddling! It's really none of my business," the boy apologized.

"Don't worry about it," Heidi waved his concerns aside, a little _too_ hasty in her opinion. Damn, she needed a change of topic, and fast.

"I wanted to thank you for the Valentine," Diggory said. "It was rather cute."

Now, despite what her sister might think of her, Heidi wanted nothing more then to be swallowed whole by the marble floor underneath her feet. Truth be told, she had no idea what crazy divinity possessed her to write that blasted Valentine, least of all send it. And Diggory bringing it up made her regret she had ever had the blasted idea...despite the fact that he said it was cute. _Wait what?_

"You liked it?" Heidi asked doubtfully.

"Well, I didn't like the fact that the dwarf started singing to me in the middle of the corridor," Cedric groaned slightly and Heidi stiffened beside him.

"Were there any witnesses present?" Heidi asked worried. She had completely forgotten about Lockhart's foul idea of hiring dwarfs to sing their Valentines. The bastard was going to have a gruesome accident sometimes soon!

"The corridor was packed," Diggory said apologetically.

Yep, Lockhart was _toast_! Heidi decided after hearing the news.

"But I imagine I got the same end of the stick," Diggory said, distracting her from her gruesome thoughts about how to kill Lockhart.

Heidi turned a questioned look towards Diggory. "Why would you?"

Diggory looked confused at her. "Am, you didn't get my Valentine?" he asked perplexed.

Heidi turned bright read at hearing that and averted her eyes as she hastily shock her head no. "I ran," she said in a small voice.

"You actually managed to run?" Diggory asked awestruck.

"It wasn't that hard," Heidi answered, her eyes still locked on her shoes.

"So, that's why I got this back!" Diggory exclaimed, seemingly relieved. "I thought you didn't like it." Heidi lifted her eyes to see Diggory produce a neat envelope out of his pocket, which he then handed to her. "I know it's a little late, but, Happy Valentines!"

Heidi stood rotten to the spot, glaring at the envelope in Diggory's hand with a racing heart. Not knowing what exactly she was supposed to do, she reached out and took the envelope, and then stared at it mutely with a completely blank expression on her face for a couple of minutes up until Diggory placed a delicate finger under her chin and lifted her head up. She suddenly came face- to-face with the boy's stunning gray orbs which were regarding her intently. He leaned in slightly closer and Heidi's breath caught in her throat. He was so close the tips of their noses were nearly touching.

"You really have the most beautiful eyes I have ever seen," Diggory said.

He tilted his head to the side, and suddenly, Heidi felt a pair of demanding lips crashing upon hers which nearly stole the last supply of oxygen that her lungs had left...only problem was...Diggory wasn't the one kissing her. He'd turned his head and gave her a soft peek on the cheek; then he'd said a quiet see you later and left, leaving her standing there confused as to what had just happened.

Heidi rested her back up against the wall and traced her index finger across her bottom lip. That was Voldemort she'd been daydreaming about kissing.

"Sissy!" came a squeak of delight from her left, and before Heidi had time to process what was going on, she found herself in the choking embrace of her sister, who nearly succeeded in sucking the life right out of her.

"Oh, I'm so happy for you!" Diana squealed and released her, only to start choking her again. Neville was trailing slightly behind her looking red in the face.

"What are you so happy about?" Heidi asked slightly dazed thanks to the lack of oxygen.

"I saw Diggory," Diana said in a mischievous voice.

"We were wondering what was taking you so long so we came to check on you," Neville supplied.

"And I just saw the Hufflepuff hotty kiss you on the cheek!" Diana taunted. "Oh, you have to tell me everything!" she demanded. "What is that you have there?" she asked pointing at the envelope in Heidi's hand.

"My Valentine Letter," Heidi answered.

"From Diggory?" Diana squeaked sounding nothing less then Rita Skeeter (a vile reporter of the Daily Prophet), which had just gotten her greedy little hands on some juicy information.

"Here," Heidi handed her the letter knowing she wouldn't get away with it. "Help yourself."

Diana snatched the letter out of her hands and scanned through it in one beat, while giggling and squealing all the while like an enamored fangirl.

Heidi didn't care. She was to busy trying to figure out why she had daydreamed about kissing Voldemort while Diggory was so close to her? Because she did like the Hufflepuff boy, less she wouldn't have bothered to humiliate herself by sending him a Valentine. Granted he didn't actually kiss her, and she had been damn sure that he would, and the only person she had kissed up until now was Voldemort, so she had nothing else to compare to. Still, she didn't like the fact that Voldemort had decided to make an unwanted cameo in her intimate moment with Diggory. Well, it wasn't exactly intimate, and she was starting to ramble... how odd.

"Heidi," Neville's quiet voice brought her out of her reverie.

"What?" Heidi asked.

"Are you feeling alright?" the boy asked concerned.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she assured smiling at him.

"Ok," Neville nodded. "Wanna go back to study?"

"God, yes! _Anything_ to keep me away from my sister today would be a blessing," Heidi answered and proceeded to pull out a random book from the Potion shelf; then she followed Neville to the table where he and Diana had taken residence. The next half an hour was spent trying to convince Diana to shut the hell up about Diggory and his _oh so sweet_ Valentine letter, and get her to concentrate on the book at hand, which surprisingly, managed to gain some of the red-head's interest.

Then came lunch, where they met up with Hermione, then Wood ushered the Quidditch team off to practice, because, apparently, they had the match against Hufflepuff coming up in two days time, which Heidi had completely forgotten about! And after that, they had their first detention of the year...with Filch ("Yay!" Diana had squealed in delight and hugged the caretaker), who let them off with cleaning the trophy room with their wands, so that was done in no time at all. The kids made it back to the common room at a quarter pass nine and settled themselves next to Hermione who was busy with some homework or another.

"Done with your detention?" Hermione asked surprised.

"We got Filch," was all that the kids said and Hermione nodded in understanding.

"Lets hope we always get old Filch from now on until the end of the year," Neville said keeping his fingers crossed.

"We have that extra week with McGonagall," Hermione reminded which caused the kids' good mood to vanish.

"My match against Diggory is coming up soon," Heidi said grumpily, remembering one of the reasons why she hated today.

"Sis, you better be careful not to clobber him in the upcoming match, less you risk hurting his pride," Diana advised. "Men are really sensitive about things like that!"

"I'm hardly gonna let him win," Heidi said skeptically. "And besides, what's he gonna do about _my_ wounded pride if _I_ lose?"

"Screw him, you better win this match if you want to have a career in professional Quidditch," Diana said. "Just make sure that you don't completely trash him, so that he doesn't feel offended about it."

"What if he trashes me?" Heidi asked.

"You've been on the team for longer then he has," Hermione said reasonably. "You have experience on your side."

"And besides, they got totally whooped in the match against Slytherin," Neville said in an attempt to reassure her.

"The Slytherins play dirty as hell and have the fastest brooms around," Heidi reminded. "It's not that easy to compete with those brooms. I should know, I had a rough time too."

"But you beat them," Diana reminded.

"Because I'm just about as much of a cheat as they are when I want to be," Heidi said.

"Then cheat," Diana said.

"Against Hufflepuff?" Neville asked skeptically. "Only the Slytherins would sink that low as to cheat against those guys!"

"Yes, one of the main traits of the Hufflepuff house is fair-play," Hermione reminded. "You cheat against them and you'll end up flying from Diggory's list of friends, let alone crushes."

Heidi frowned slightly frustrated. "Then what am I gonna do about the match?! McGonagall will have my head if I don't win!"

"Try playing fair!" stated Hermione simply. "It's not like you had to cheat last time and it's not like Sanpe's gonna be referring the match again! So there really is no reason for you to worry!"

"I guess you're right," Heidi grunted, not looking pleased about the turn of events.

"Well, then, problem solved!" Diana cheered. "I, for one, am of to bed! See you in the morning!"

"You're turning in so early?" asked Heidi perplexed. "It's not even ten!"

"I'm tired!" Diana whined. "I'll see you tomorrow!" she waved and rushed up the stairs which led to the girls' dormitory.

"She's in a rather good mood," Heidi commented.

"Think she's got another crush?" Hermione asked.

"I hope it's not a Slytherin again," Neville said disgruntled.

The other two nodded their heads in agreement.

"Hermione," Heidi said suddenly remembering something. "Do you still have that book about the Hogwarts prefects?"

"Yeah, it's in my bag," Hermione answered, not bothering to take her eyes off her homework.

"What are you working on?" Neville asked.

"Transfiguration. Do you want to start on your essay?" Hermione asked.

"Do you think McGonagall'll be asking for it?" Neville wondered.

"It's McGonagall we're talking about," Heidi said. "Of course she'll ask for it!"

Neville sighed and crouched down next to Hermione. The girl proceeded to explain to him the basics of the spell they were learning about while Heidi dug into Hermione's bag and pulled out the _Famous Prefects_ _from start till today_ book and started scanning the photos on the pages to see if she recognized anyone.

_Hmm, let's see, 1860... 1900... 1922... 1938..._ _Here he is! Tom Marvolo Riddle!_ _Prefect from 1942 till 1945, he was made Head Boy in his last year and received an award for Special Services to the School in his sixth year. _

_He is the boy Augusta Longbottom said had blamed Hagrid for the whole Chamber incident!_ Heidi noted.

Heidi glared at the photo. The boy in the picture was almost smirking, a gesture she had become quite accustomed to since last night; she doubted the boy could even smile for a change (_probably developed a phobia of smirking disease_). The eyes were different though. Contrary to Tom Riddle's jet black orbs, the teenage Voldemort in her dream had deep crimson eyes and quite an unnerving shade mind you. Though there was one thing that bothered her...why had she linked Tom Riddle, the model student, perfect-mister-pretty-boy-who-probably-had-more-fans-then-friends, to someone like Voldemort, a murdering deranged psychopath who was extremely ugly to boast?

_Oh, yeah... that's why!_

Diana scurried through the door of the second year girls' dorm and jumped on her bed and made sure to draw the covers around before pulling out Tom Riddle's diary from within her drawer, a bottle of ink and one of her fancy quills.

_Hi there Tom! Sorry for leaving you alone for so long_, she wrote. _Hope you haven't missed me._

_Actually I have found myself missing you terribly_, Tom replied. _It does get rather lonely being trapped in the diary all day, with no one else to talk to._

_Aw, I'm sorry I was out for so long, but I have so much to tell you! You'll never believe what I've been doing these past few days!_

_I'm all ears!_

Diana smiled at the reply and began scrabbling frantically along the page, filling Tom in on every little detail, every little event that had taken place in her life so far. She told him about Hermione getting petrified, then about the chamber of secrets, the Heir of Slytherin, the talk in Dumbledore's office, their resolution on finding a cure for Neville's parents, Diggory's Valentine letter for her sister, and every little thing that didn't manage to elude her memory at the moment.

_That was quite a fascinating story_, Tom commented once she had finished her long rant.

_I know and I'm rather proud of myself!_Diana admitted.

_For good reason too! I can't believe Dumbledore punished you and your friends after you've rid him of this Voldemort guy and his pet Basilisk!_

_I know he was rather mean_, Diana whined. _But Heidi did say it was gonna end up that way. I just didn't care! I wanted that asshole caught, and I caught him...well, sort of..._

_It's better then nothing._

_Yep! I know! And now Hermione's all better, so I hope that jackass is fuming somewhere in a rotten hole if he's not dead from grief already! _

_That's quite some language for such a pretty lady. It doesn't fit you one bit_, Tom chastised.

_Sorry! I promise I'll quit after tonight! Hope you don't mind indulging me just a little bit do you?_

_Not at all! Though...just for tonight!_

_Thanks Tom! You're a real sweetheart!_ Diana blushed as she realized what she'd just written. _I mean, a real gentlemen!_

_Well then, how about we try to make a real lady out of you?_ Tom questioned making Diana blush harder then she'd ever done in her life. It was times like this when she was glad that Tom was not able to see her face.

_Sure__,_ she wrote eagerly. _What is it that you have in mind?_

_Let's start out simple by trying to make you swear less with every passing day; then we'll work on the rest._

_Ok Tom!_

Diana kept writing to Tom for several more hours, up until her sister and the rest of the girls started filling in the dorm. Then she decided she'd had enough for one night and finally wished her good night's to Tom before falling into a dreamless sleep, the diary securely tucked underneath her fluffy pillow.

Heidi barely managed to fall asleep, only to weak up in a familiar king-sized bed with none other then the face of one Tom Riddle with scarlet eyes (commonly known to her as teenaged-Voldemort) glaring dangerously at her. The teen was currently sitting on the edge of her side of the bed with his arms hanging loosely on either side of her head.

"So, that's all it takes to impress you, a bloody valentine's letter?!" Voldemort hissed menacingly.

"Excuse me?" Heidi said slightly perplexed. She felt her scar prickle faintly as the teenaged dark lord narrowed his eyes which for a slight second turned a nasty bloody red color.

"Pretty boy Diggory hands you a silly little Valentine's letter and flashes a few smiles and suddenly you're acting like all the other thousand or so fangirls that he's got out there hanging on his every word. If I had known you were so easy, I might have sent you a stupid letter myself!" the dark lord snarled.

"You _ass_!"

Heidi's cheeks flushed in anger and her eyes narrowed to slides as she brought up a fist with the soul intent of breaking the boy's jaw. The teen caught her fist and took hold of her other hand then lifted them on top of her head, while Heidi struggled and started shouting obscenities at him all through the process.

"Quite a cute temper you have there," the boy taunted. "Tell me love, do you kiss your mother with that mouth?"

Heidi glowered at the teen as she struggled to free herself from his grasp, but it was no use, she was quite literally sandwiched between the bed and the teenaged-Voldemort's slightly muscular frame. Well...at least she wasn't going to let _him_ get the best of her in an argument.

She smirked.

"No. Last I remember, I've only kissed you with this mouth," Heidi answered in a sweet venomous voice.

Voldemort's lips suddenly twitched into the much too familiar smirk as he leaned in slightly closer and purred: "Fortunately. Because, let's face it, Diggory's a wuss. I doubt he's got what it takes to satisfy a girl of your... _caliber_."

"Hmm," Heidi lifted a delicate brow at his statement and asked: "So you think _you've_ got what it takes to handle someone of my _caliber_?" in a slight patronizing tone.

The bastard's smirk widened. "Of course," he purred and bent forward to brush his lips over hers.

Heidi flushed upon the contact and managed to catch herself just in time to not respond to the teen's kiss. She needed to think of something to distract the boy fast or she might end up loosing the argument to the insufferable prick. Then she remembered something.

"Really Tom Riddle," Heidi purred tauntingly against his lips. "Do you really think you've got what it takes to satisfy me?"

Voldemort's eyes snapped open in a flash after hearing the name and his head shot up and away from hers. For a split second, his surprise was there for all to see, before he covered it up with a cheeky smile and stated: "Hmm, so you've finally found out whose appearance you've assigned me, and here I was thinking that you've forgotten about me for the entire day."

"Oh, believe me I haven't forgotten about you for one second," Heidi assured. "I fact," she smiled widely. "I've come up with a new theory regarding your identity!" she stated proudly.

"Is that so?" Voldemort quizzed with a suspicious smile.

"I think you'll rather like it," Heidi confessed, grinning broadly at him. "It goes something like this: You, Tom Marvolo Riddle, are Voldemort!" she stated coldly, her smile dropping of her face. "My mind didn't _associate_ Tom Riddle's face with Voldemort's, that's how you've always looked! Well, at least up until you got shot with the killing curse and made the stupid choice of attaching yourself to Quirrell's head!"

"And where did that come from?" Voldemort asked coldly. "Is it one of your silly and desperate little excuses to prove that I am not just a figment of your imagination but Lord Voldemort who is _somehow_ screwing with your head, or do you actually have a plausible explanation for these arguments?"

"I have a plausible explanation for these arguments! And I will explain them to you right now!" Heidi snapped. "But first, can I sit up?" she asked frustrated.

"No," Voldemort said with a taunting smirk. "I much rather like the idea of you squirming helplessly beneath me."

"Pervert!" Heidi snapped glaring daggers at the smirking teen.

"Fine!" She said. "I'll talk like this, though it will be rather difficult!" she warned.

"Oh, don't worry, I won't mind one bit."

"Ass!"

"Anyway," Heidi squirmed slightly in order to arrange herself in a much more comfortable position, but seeing as there was none, she sighed in frustration and began talking. "The reason why I think you're Tom Riddle is, because he lived over fifty years ago, _and_" she raised her voice slightly to stop the teen from talking when he looked like he was going to interrupt, "the Chamber of Secrets was opened over 50 years ago! Voldemort began his war campaign against the Ministry over thirty years ago, a gruesome little crusade which earned him the title of the most vile and sick _bastard_ to have ever walked the face of the earth!" Voldemort glared threateningly at her while Heidi stopped to shoot him an imperious look. "Something which got me wondering about how old he was around the time he started his little pureblood-only campaign. So I did a little bit of snooping around in my first year and I concluded that he had to have been somewhere around thirty or in his late twenties back then."

"And how pray tell did you come to that conclusion?" Voldemort asked intrigued.

"Oh, you see, that's the problem," Heidi said smiling pleasantly at him. "It seemed no one had ever heard of Voldemort before the start of his little crusade, he appears to have simply _popped out of the ground_! Whoever he was before his dark lord time did a dang good job at covering up his tracks. Changed his name, moved out of the country for a few good years let his past self slowly slip away from the minds of all his ex-acquaintances – of course, only those who didn't interest him that is – and once his past self had slipped into the shadows and everyone he knew had moved on with his life, he popped back in with a new name – a French one at that," Heidi wrinkled her nose "–and went about playing the big bad Dark Lord who everyone had to bow down to like a god charade. And now here comes the funny part!" Heidi fixed the now stoic-faced dark lord with a cold glare. "Tom Riddle, by all accounts the smartest student to have ever studied at Hogwarts, prefect, head boy, award winning student, seems to have just _disappeared_ after finishing his final year at Hogwarts! Perfect-little-pretty-boy who everyone loved and admired, who everyone expected to have a bright and successful future ahead of him simply vanished of the face of the earth after his final year. Coincidence? I think not!"

"And what if it was?" Voldemort asked smiling nastily at her.

"Oh, no my dear, it was no coincidence," Heidi said her face twitched into a cruel smile. "Because, you see, you made a rather big mistake in the beginning of the year which gave you away rather quickly."

"And that is?" Voldemort asked sounding bored.

"You knew where the chamber of secrets was!" Heidi accused. "At the beginning of the year when I told you my friend's stupid theory about the chamber being sealed off with parsel-magic and hidden in some god-forsaken place, you smirked in my face, something which made me doubt my judgment regarding the Chamber matter. Then the chamber does turn up to be located in some god-forsaken place_ and_ its entrance sealed with parsel-magic! Coincidence? I don't think so!"

"And now for my favorite part," she purred. "_Tom Riddle_! He was given a special award for services to the school, on the same day on which one Rubeus Hagrid got expelled from Hogwarts. Given that fact that Dippet had announced a day before that they had caught the perpetrator who opened the chamber, you'd have to be an idiot to not put two and two together and conclude that Hagrid was the perpetrator and Tom Riddle was the one who caught him. But you'd have to be really dumb to think that someone as gullible and naive as Hagrid could _ever_ set a giant Basilisk loose around the school to petrify people! Which I'm sure Dippet was, but not me! Not to mention the fact that Hagrid is not a parselmouth. I should know, I scared him senseless when he caught me hissing at Marcus Flint in the hallway." Heidi glared coldly at Voldemort. "Which means that the perpetrator was someone other then Hagrid, someone who was put under enough pressure when Dippet announced that they were going to close the school because of the attacks; someone like and orphan maybe, who had no desire of going back to their home and whose career would suffer greatly thanks to the abrupt end of his education, someone like Tom Riddle! Someone like you!" Heidi concluded. "_You're the real Tom Riddle! You're Voldemort, not a figment of my imagination! And you framed Hagrid for the Chamber incident 50 years ago, you _bastard!"

"Are you sure that's not just an unfortunate coincidence which took place, and that this Tom Riddle person just made a regrettable mistake when accusing Hagrid of being the perpetrator? After all," Voldemort smirked. "You did say he was put on the spot, right? Maybe he just...lost his tether and in his desperation for securing his stay at Hogwarts made an awful mistake and accused Hagrid of a crime he did not commit."

"_Ain't that cute_?" Heidi teased. "_You're actually trying to overrule my argument on the mere assumption of _coincidence?! _Do I really look that dumb to you_?!"

"_The only thing you look like to me is a helpless little girl trapped like a lamb in the snake's lair whose trying to escape her fate by means of silly little arguments which seem preposterous even to her_," Voldemort hissed tauntingly.

"You can speak parseltongue!" Heidi declared in triumph. "How could you speak parseltongue if you're not the Heir of Slytherin?"

"Oh, I don't know, maybe it has something to do with being a figment of your imagination and knowing everything that you know?" Voldemort asked sarcastically. "Honestly girl, are we gonna do this all night or will you just give up on it already?"

"I'm not giving up!" Heidi said resolute. "You're Tom Riddle! And you're Voldemort! And you're screwing around with my head!" she wined.

"I doubt even _you_ believe that," Voldemort said.

"How would you know?" Heidi snapped finally reaching the end of her tether.

"Because I am a part of your mind," Voldemort said. "And because I know that you yourself doubt that someone with such a bright future ahead of him as Tom Riddle, would give up all the influence and respect he would gain just to become a hated and feared dark lord who got nowhere in the end."

Heidi glared at him. "What about Diggory!" she challenged. "Why are you so jealous of him?"

"You created me," Voldemort stated simply. "You subconsciously associate me with Voldemort. According to you he is one of those possessive and dominant types who'd hardly allow a prey to escape his clutches, and therefore, by extension, you have attributed those characteristics to me."

Heidi glared at him unable to argue against that.

"That or, your mind is not satisfied with the idea of you liking a bloody Hufflepuff of all things," Voldemort added.

Heidi couldn't help sniggering at that. "So my mind favors the sneaky Slytherins over the honest Hufflepuffs, ha? What exactly does that have to say about me?"

Voldemort pretended to think over the answer for a second before saying: "That you like power and influence, just like a true Slytherin. That good looks only are not enough to satisfy you, or keep you interested for long. That you want your men to be more then pretty faces on a poster and a little bit more_ indulgent_ of your brat like personality. And that pretty boy Diggory is going to fly off your list if he lets you win in the upcoming match."

"Hmm, you're trying to place yourself in my good grace while making Diggory lose face," Heidi said. "Quite sly of you."

"Well, I am impersonating the king of Slytherins after all," Voldemort purred and bent forward to place a slight peach on her lips. "You would be quite displeased if I had acted any other way."

He began nuzzling on her bottom lip while Heidi squirmed slightly underneath him. He then started trailing soft kisses along her jaw and down her neck.

"I doubt my mind's masochistic enough to torture itself in such a way," Heidi said in a raspy voice, while she began squirming even harder, trying in vain to free herself from the teen's iron grip.

"Torture itself in what way?" Voldemort questioned while placing a soft bite on her neck.

Heidi bit hard on her lip as to suppress the moan which was threatening to escape her and said through gritted teeth: "You!"

Voldemort chuckled lightly as he lifted his head towards her face and gave her a crooked smile. "I doubt your mind associates me with the word _torture_," he purred against her lips. He brushed his lips against hers, and then graced her with an out right smirk as Heidi pressed her lips in a thin line and glared lividly at him. "You can struggle if you want," the dark lord said nonplused. "After all, I do rather enjoy a challenge." Then he crushed his lips onto hers and began ravishing them relentlessly.

Heidi was squirming even harder by now and futilely tried to resist the temptation of responding to the kiss even as she felt her resolution faltering.

_No_! She was not letting this bastard get the best of her! She gritted her teeth even tighter as she felt Voldemort's hands release their hold on her wrists, although something prevented her from moving her hands down to give the bastard a good punch in the face like she wanted to.

Voldemort's hands moved to rest on her back and he enveloped her in a bon-crushing hug, effectively squashing her to his chest while he nuzzled tauntingly on her bottom lip, driving Heidi up the walls as she tried one last desperate time to stop herself from responding to his kisses.

She felt herself loosing the battle however as her lips slowly began responding to his demanding ones. Voldemort wasted no time in slipping his tong inside her mouth and explore it thoroughly.

Heidi's hands were suddenly released and they instantly found their way in the teen's messy looks as she allowed her tongue to intertwine with Voldemort's demanding one. Her eyes roll in the back of her head and her breathing became raspier as Voldemort's kisses became hungrier.

Voldemort slipped his hand along her side and down towards her ass, only to be unpleasantly surprised by Heidi, who suddenly bit down hard on his tongue. The ex-dark lord pulled back with a sudden yelp and bent over the side to spit a mouthful of blood on the floor.

Heidi meanwhile had jumped of the bed and rushed towards the door hoping to get as far away from the teen as possible. She yanked the door open in one swift motion and stumbled down the stairs which led to the common room only to bump head-first into one very angry dark lord.

Voldemort trapped her in an iron grip and smirked menacingly at her. "I trust it that you've forgotten that this is not exactly the real world you're in, right?"

"Might have slipped my mind," Heidi admitted as she tried to slip out of the teen's embrace. The teenaged Dark Lord smirked at her as he tightened his grip and lifted her up into the air.

"My, my, you are rather stubborn for a Slytherin, but to sneaky for a Gryffindor," he mussed as he began guiding her towards the couch. "So, what does that make you? A Ravenclaw? Probably. A Hufflepuff? Not likely."

"It makes me, _me_!" Heidi snapped sending him a reproachful glare. "It makes me unique, my own person, and I think I should be given my own house for that fact," she said in an arrogant voice.

"My thoughts exactly," Voldemort agreed and dumped her on the couch beside the fire place then he captured her lips in a breathtaking kiss. "Good luck with your match against Hufflepuff," he whispered.

Heidi snapped her eyes open and sat up straight with a start, nearly managing to bump her head into that of one Hermione Granger who was shaking her lightly.

"Hey, are you ok?" Hermione asked.

Heidi stared at her dumbstruck and confused. The two girls were currently in the Gryffindor common room, sitting on the couch beside the fire - the same couch on which Voldemort had dumped her.

"Heidi?" Hermione said again, shaking her roughly.

"What?" Heidi asked turning to give her friend an annoyed glare. "Oh, Hermione how did you get here?"

"I followed you down from the dorms," Hermione answered.

"You...followed me?" Heidi asked confused. Hermione nodded. "I walked down here on my own?" she asked perplexed. She was sure she'd been sleeping in her bed last she checked. So what if she'd run down here in her dream, she'd never woken up in the forbidden forest when she dreamed.

"You did," Hermione confirmed. "But, what I don't understand is, why did you throw Diggory's letter in the fire?" the bushy haired girl asked pointing towards the fireplace.

"I what?" Heidi asked confused and lifted her face to glaze into the blazing flames. Amidst the burning ember, there lay a small piece of paper, which looked suspiciously like the envelope which Diggory had given her the other day.

Heidi stared dumbfounded at the tiny piece of parchment. Had she really burned Diggory's letter? No! Of course not! She liked the boy! Why would she burn the letter when she hadn't even had time to read it! "I didn't burn it!" she told Hermione.

"Yes, you did," Hermione told her.

"But I don't remember burning it!" Heidi protested.

"Shhh!" Hermione shushed her. "Keep it down or you'll wake the others!"

"Sorry," Heidi mumbled looking dejected at what was left of her Valentines letter. "I didn't burn it!" she said again.

"I saw you," Hermione said sadly.

"Why would I burn my Valentine's letter?!" asked a slightly irked Heidi.

"Maybe you thought it was something else," Hermione reasoned.

"No I didn't! Hermione I was dreaming the whole time! I just woke up now! I don't even remember walking down the stairs!"

"Maybe you were sleepwalking," Hermione suggested.

"I wasn't sleep walking, I was dreaming!"

"Bout what?"

"About that..." something in her brain seemed to click, because Heidi jumped to her feet abruptly and snapped: "That son of a bitch!"

"What?" Hermione asked confused.

"Voldemort," Heidi said as means of clarification.

"What does Vo-am, I mean You-Know-Who, have to do with this," Hermione asked confused.

Heidi blushed furiously and gave Hermione an appraised look. Should she tell her friend about her dreams? She dang well wanted to! Truth be told, she was tired of those stupid dreams, but she'd tried everything she could think of and still failed to get rid of them, maybe Hermione could help her out. She took a deep breath and started talking.

"You dunderhead!" Hermione chastised. "You should have told me sooner! Next time, when something like this happens-" the bushy haired girl threw her a warning glare which promised lots of pain, "-you better tell me!"

"Come on!" she grabbed Heidi by the arm and started dragging her up the stairs towards the girl's bedroom.

"Where are we going?" Heidi asked.

"To the library," Hermione stated. Heidi was just about ready to point out the obvious fact that, one, the library was not in their bedroom, and two, it was most certainly closed at three in the morning, when Hermione added. "But first we need to get your father's cloak; we don't want madam Pince to catch us snooping around after curfew."

"Oh, ok," Heidi said and obediently followed the girl.

Half an hour later found the two girls snooping in the library's potion section.

"You said you didn't have a dream that night when madam Pomfrey gave you dreamless sleep potion, right?" Hermione asked.

"Yeah," Heidi answered. "But maybe I was just too tired to think of anything other then the whole Chamber matter," she tried to reason.

"It's still worth a shot," Hermione insisted.

"The potion is addicting," Heidi pointed out.

"That's why we're not gonna brew dreamless sleep potion," Hermione said.

"We're not?" Heidi asked confused. "Then why are we looking the potion up for?"

"We're not," Hermione stated. "We're looking up for the Draught of Living Death. It has the same effect as the dreamless sleep potion, well...sort of."

"What do you mean sort of?" Heidi asked catching the slight hesitation in her friend's voice.

"Well," Hermione mumbled as she said the following words. "The difference is that this one knocks you out for a few hours..."

"A whole day actually," Heidi answered. "I researched it when Snape mentioned it in first year."

"And?" Hermione prompted. "Is it addicting?"

"Dunno," Heidi said shrugging slightly. "No one's really tried to use that to get through the night, and besides, Herms, I don't need to sleep 12 hours!"

"Who said you do," Hermione waved her worries aside. "It says here we can use Wiggenweld Potion to counter it!"

"So, now you want me hooked on two potions at the same time," Heidi grumbled.

"No!" Hermione snapped slightly offended. "I want to help!"

"I know Herms, but I don't think potions is the right thing for me," said Heidi tiredly.

"Your match against Hufflepuff is tomorrow," Hermione reminded. "Do you want to spend the night before the game trapped in a nightmare with teen-Voldemort or do you want to have a good's night's sleep for once!"

"You said Voldemort's name," Heidi said bewildered.

"So what?" Hermione snapped. "I'm Muggle-born! My parents never experienced Voldemort's reign first hand, so they never taught me to fear him like the devil since I was a child!"

"Well said," Heidi beamed at her.

Hermione threw a slight content smile her was, before molding her features into the worried look again. "There's a few hours till sunrise, and I want to get to try that potion tonight," the bushy haired told her.

"Why tonight?" asked Heidi.

"Because, we're not sure that this might work, are we?"

"I suppose not...wait a minute. Are you telling me that, if this potion doesn't work, then I'll be stuck in a dream like trance, with teen-Voldy on my back for 12 whole hours?!" asked Heidi slightly alarmed.

"Aha," nodded a sympathetic Hermione. "That's why I want to make sure that this thing works before submitting you to a prolonged version of the treatment. There are about three more hours till sunrise, so, I want to try and dope you now, and wake you up in three hours time; then you can tell me if the potion worked or if we have to search for something else."

Heidi nodded her head in understanding, but still looked doubtful.

"I understand if you don't like this," Hermione assured, "neither do I, but, it's only temporarily! You know, for this week, then we can try and find something less dangerous, a spell maybe..."

"Sounds like a good idea to me," Heidi nodded. "But, where are we gonna get a vile of the Draught of Living Death, let alone Wiggenweld Potion?"

Hermione blushed hard as she answered in a deceivingly business-like voice. "Well, I was thinking we could snitch some from the hospital wing." Then she hurriedly added: "Just for tonight! We'll make our own potion tomorrow and return what we stole to Madam Pomfrey."

Heidi laughed slightly at her friend's embarrassment and nodded her head. "Sounds fin by me."

"You shouldn't encourage me!" Hermione chastised.

"What exactly is it that you want me to do? Talk you out of it?" Heidi asked in a slightly amused voice. "Come on," the brunet prompted. "Let's go before someone catches us."

It was half an hour later, and a few near run-ins with Peeves that the girls made it back to the common room, two bottles of portion securely held in their grasp. The hospital wing was light guarded, obviously, since they doubt anyone else had tried stealing from there before! The girls felt slightly ashamed for breaking the record, but it was all for a good cause.

"Ok, are you ready?" Hermione asked as she settled herself on the girl's bed.

Heidi silently put the cloak back in her trunk and came to stand besides Hermione.

"As ready as I'll ever be," she said slightly nervous. It had seemed fairly easy theorizing about it in the library, but now that she was actually about to take the dang potion, well, it didn't feel as easy as she thought it would.

"Don't worry, I'll wake you up in two and a half hours," Hermione promised sounding worried.

"What? Are you gonna chicken out on me?" asked Heidi cheekily, with a confident smile plastered on her face, though she felt her insides turning as Hermione pulled out the vial with a clear liquid from her pocket and gave her a somewhat reassuring smile.

"No," the bushy-haired girl said. "See you in a couple of hours," she handed the vial to Heidi and prompted her to drink.

"Hope this works," Heidi glared miserably at the vial, teeth clenched and heart hammering wildly in her chest. "You'll wake me in two hours!" she ordered Hermione sharply.

The other girl nodded solemnly. "I will!"

"K," Heidi exhaled sharply. "Pleasant dreams," she said and drowned the vial in one gulp.

The effect was instantaneous! Heidi's eyes rolled up in the back of her head and she dropped on the four poster bed out cold.

Hermione tucked Heidi in and whispered a soft "Good night," before heading towards her own bed and lying down. "Hope this works," she added as an afterthought as she closed her eyes and fell in a troubled sleep.


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13: Gifts and Rewards**

There was a conspiracy going on here, Diana was certain of it!

The two know-it-alls had been radiating pure joy since yesterday, and it ticked her off not knowing what it was that they were so happy about. She had tried asking mind you, but all she got was a:

"I'll tell you my secret if you tell me yours," from her sister, which literary translated in _tell me how you got that Outstanding in History of Magic and I'll tell you what I'm so happy about_. It hurt her slightly that her sister didn't believe she was capable of getting good grades on her own, but, truth be told, if she were her sister, she'd probably be suspicious too.

However, her sister's secret could wait for another time, right now, Diana and Neville were busy trying to get operation Payback into action.

"So, how are we doing this?" Neville asked again.

"Well, first we need to find that blasted poltergeist and convince it to follow Lockhart around the school all day, and give him hell for the rest of the semester, then we'll head out in the forest and get Rusty and his pals to do a number on the bastard, and then we'll have to take care of Malfoy and his goons," Diana said, ticking the steps on her fingers.

"Right," Neville nodded. "Wait," he suddenly seemed confused. "What's Malfoy got to do with getting rid of Lockhart?" asked the plump boy.

"Nothing. That's plan two," Diana reminded, "Operation save Dobby!"

"Oh, yeah," Neville nodded. "I remember."

The duo were currently snooping down the dungeon floor in search for Peeves the troublesome Poltergeist.

"Are you sure you want to miss Heidi's Quidditch match against Hufflepuff?" Neville asked for what felt like the thousand time.

"I told you already! This is the perfect timing to set our trap and have Lockhart out of here before sundown – hopefully – Heidi'll win the match indifferent of the fact that we're there or not. Diggory has no chance against her," Diana said confidently. "And besides, do you want to be caught snooping in the dungeons by the Slytherin little rascals? Because there'll be quite a few of them lurking around after the game!" Neville shuck his head furiously. "Then let's go!" Diana prompted and grabbed a hold of his arm.

Heidi was feeling better then she had in months! She had tried out the Draught of Living Death two days ago and it worked like a charm! Two fantastic days of Voldemort-free nights and she felt herself regain all the drained up energy from the sleepless nights she'd had to endure so far. She was grinning madly, and Diggory and his puff team were about to get squashed!

"Captains shake hands," Madam Hooch called out; whistle firmly held in one hand and a broomstick in the other.

Oliver marched forward to shake hands with the Hufflepuff captain, a seventh year, bulky boy Heidi had no interest in.

"On my mark," the gray-haired lady called as she lifted the whistle to her lips.

Heidi was bouncing with excitement and her eyes were glued to the small struggling ball in madam Hooch's hand. The rush of adrenalin was somewhat intoxicating; she felt nothing less then a junky that was currently on a sugar-rush, but damn if she cared. She nearly jumped off the ground as she saw madam Hooch release the Snitch, but Fred (who'd taken notice of her strange behavior) was keeping a firm grip on her wrist.

The Snitch zoomed around the players for a few seconds, and then began its fast ascend towards the heavens above, while Heidi's eyes followed it like a predator chasing its destined pray.

Madam Hooch's whistle mercifully blew after a few short seconds and Heidi all but forgot about Diana's warning to not trash Diggory in today's match, or Oliver's advice to let them score as may points as they could get and leaped after the tiny golden ball, snatching it from the air before Angelina even got the chance to catch the Quaffle, shocking her team-mates and the crowd speechless.

"AMAZING!" Lee Jordan's voice boomed from the commenter's stand. "POTTER CAUGHT THE SNITCH IN LESS THEN 5 SECONDS! IT'S A NEW RECORD LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!"

Heidi took a few dives of joy as she looked gleefully at the tiny struggling ball in her hands, while Angelina, who was closest to her, crashed head-first into her and throttled her till she was green. Fred and George were soon to catch up with them, followed closely by Katy Bell and Alicia Spinet, Wood was last to arrive.

"That was amazing," Wood said and he kissed her on the cheek and enveloped her in a bone crushing hug.

"Thanks," Heidi said cheerfully and let herself be carried away by her team-mates towards the stands where the overly-excited crowd was waiting.

Hermione was giving her a worried look, which Heidi completely missed as she was hurled up into the air by the cheering Gryffindor fans.

"What is wrong with you?" asked Hermione when she finally managed to corner Heidi in the locket room after the others had left.

"Nothing's wrong with me," Heidi smiled brightly at her.

"Oh, really?" asked a skeptical looking Hermione. "So trashing Diggory in today's match by beating the record of fastest catch in a game when they'd been completely trashed by Slytherin in their previous match seems like normal to your?"

Heidi's good mood seemed to drop all of a sudden.

"I..." she tried to say, but words seemed to evade her at the moment.

"I honestly don't know what came over me," Heidi finally managed to choke out.

"I think it's the combined effect of the two potions," Hermione said worriedly. "It'll be best if you stopped taking them for a little while so that we can research the two more thoroughly," she suggested.

Heidi was quick to disagree and pointedly ignored her friend's comments all throughout the day.

As Heidi's adrenaline rush seemed to have returned to normal the following day, Hermione dismissed the events of the Quidditch match as the girl's joy of finally having an annoying weight lifted of her shoulders and thought nothing less of it, though for caution's sake she set upon researching the two potions and their side effects in more detail, just to be on the safe side.

Heidi, however, too ashamed of seeing the Hufflepuff's desolated face, made it her life's mission to avoid Diggory at all cause, diving behind corners or in deserted classrooms and forcing the group to take the long way to some classes when they happened to cross ways with the Hufflepuff boy in the hallway, something which earned her more then a few shouting matches with her sister.

The Weasley twins soon caught on to Heidi's weird behavior and decided to help her out by offering to prank the fourth year up until his brains rot, an offer which Heidi politely declined. Still hoping to be of some kind of use, the two decided to give Heidi an early birthday present.

"It's the secret of our success," whispered Fred conspicuously.

"It's a wrench, giving it to you," said George sourly. "But we'll do whatever it takes to keep our prized Seeker out of harm's way!" Heidi glared pointedly at them and George rushed to add: "Within the boundaries of your excellencies requests, of course."

The gift turned out to be a piece of parchment, which after a quick incantation of: "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good," whispered by George turned out to be the best gift Heidi had got since the invisibility cloak (which she still had no idea who had sent her).

"Wow," Heidi whispered mystified. "And you're giving this to me?" she asked almost bouncing with excitement.

"Indeed we are milady," one of the twins nodded merrily.

Heidi had kissed the both on the cheek, making them turn a bright shad of red in a matter of seconds and rushed off to find her sister and friends. Needless to say avoiding Diggory became a piece of cake after they got the hang of how to use the map.

Diana was overly excited about the map and decided to put it to good use immediately, by stalking Lockhart around and playing pranks on him in the most bizarre of moments. The Weasley twins offered their help in their struggle against the barmy professor, which Diana was soon to accept, so, it was no surprise when by the end of May, Lockhart was threatening to resign under claim that the castle had somehow cursed him with bad-luck.

Lucius Malfoy, Head of the Board of Governments of Hogwarts, wasted no time in apparating to school, with the soul intention of causing as much trouble for Dumbledore as he could, with regards to Lockhart's complains. He had rushed out in such a hurry, that he forgot all about his poor elf, Dobby, who was hanging miserably behind him and trying to polish his shoes.

Diana wasted no time in seizing the opportunity.

"Mister Malfoy, what a pleasure it is to see you again," she greeted cheerily.

"Good day, milady," Malfoy Sr. greeted in return. "I'm glad to see you in good health. Unfortunately I have an urgent matter to discuss with your Headmaster today, so if you will excuse me, we shall speak another time." The blond said and tried to politely slip pass the red-head.

"Oh, then please don't let me keep you," Diana hastily replied. "I just wanted to offer you this small token of appreciation which my mother bought for your wife," she pulled out a small package from her school bag-pack and handed it to the Malfoy patriarch. "I was about to hand it over to your son today so that he might owl it to you, since our owl is rather confused as to where your house is and has come back with it on more then one occasion."

Malfoy Sr. took the package with a polite smile. "Thank you for your trouble, but you needn't have bothered," he replied courteously.

"Oh, no trouble at all! I wish you a good day sir," Diana gave him a slight bow and took her leave. She rounded a corner where Neville was sitting with the Marauder's Map in had and waited, fingers crossed behind her back, hoping that her plan would work.

It did.

After Diana was out of sight, Malfoy Sr. hurriedly thruster the package in Dobby's hands and began his march down the corridor and towards Dumbledore's office.

"Dobby!" Diana called.

The small elf jumped in surprise and spun around wildly only to give her a surprised look.

"Miss Potter?" Dobby asked confused.

"Open it!" Diana prompted. "The box," she pointed at the unwrapped package. "Now!"

Dobby gave her a confused look, but proceeded to open the package inside. A squeal of delight escaped him as he saw what was within.

"Dobby!" Lucius Malfoy turned to give the poor elf a reproachful look. "Keep it down!" he warned.

"Master has given Dobby an embroider," the elf squealed happily.

"What are you talking about?" Lucius Malfoy asked surprised. Then he saw the box which Diana had given him at the elf's feet, and then he noticed a white piece of fabric in the creature's tiny little hands which had one of the most beautiful designs he had ever seen engraved onto it.

"Dobby is free!" the elf cried in delight and threw his hands in the air in joy, singing and dancing through the silent corridor.

"NO! That was not meant for you!" Lucius tried to say, but Dobby couldn't care less as he disappeared with a pop right in front of his eyes leaving an enraged Malfoy patriarch behind. Diana and Neville were soon to follow his example and scatter from the corridor.

The elf sought them out a few hours later and offered his eternal loyalty to them, which Diana wanted to decline, but Heidi disagreed by pointing out that the now free elf needed a place to stay.

"He can work for us," Heidi said. "We'll pay him," she promised. "Give him free weekends, days off, clothes, even a room of his own, which I think is more then he ever got from the Malfoy!"

Dobby had immediately agreed to Heidi's proposal, and Diana reluctantly let the matter drop. Dobby, however, remained at Hogwarts with the girls for the remainder of the semester since the girls had to first talk their parents into agreeing of the elf's presence in their house.

A few days after Malfoy Sr.'s visit, Ginny Weasley finally regained consciousness, and she was soon to claim that she'd been possessed by the memory of a spirit - she wouldn't tell the name. Dumbledore was convinced it was Voldemort, and assured the girl she'd be spared of any punishment with regards to her actions (something which irked the quartet, since_ they_ hadn't been spared of any punishment).

The Match versus Ravenclaw was barely worth mentioning at all, seeing how, in spite of all the team's effort, and their brilliant flying maneuvers, their Seeker was terrible. Cho Chang, a third year new-recruit, could hardly see the Snitch flying a few feet in front of her, so the match went to Gryffindor with 210 to 70.

Wood was practically spitting with joy of finally winning the Quidditch cup and had drunk himself half to death, that by the end of the night, he's proposed to Angelina, butchered the Hallelujah Muggle-song, managed to take the term ridiculous to a whole new level by dancing the monkey dance, snogged Heidi for a whole minute, before rushing off and throwing up on Colin Creevey. Fred and George had tied him to his bed for the rest of the night, in hopes of saving some of his rapidly-dying-dignity and then proceeded to tease Heidi about the kiss Oliver gave her up until the girl was rushed up to her room by her sister and Hermione, for fear of killing the two.

The teasing didn't end there however; Diana kept nagging her about the whole ordeal even a few weeks after the exam results came. Heidi was only too glad when it turned out that Wood had been so drunk that night that he'd forgotten all about it and so was rather confused as to why people were giving him such meaningful looks every time he came within a few feet of Heidi. It didn't help much that the kiss reminded her of her dreams of teenage-Voldemort and she sometimes found herself missing the feel of his soft yet demanding lips upon hers and the goose-bumps which formed on her skin as his hands trailed gently around her back, up through her hair and...

"Heidi!" Diana's snappish voice brought the ember eyed girl back to reality.

"What?" Heidi asked annoyed.

"You were spacing out," Hermione said. "Are you feeling ok?" she asked concerned.

"Yes," Heidi smiled reassuringly. _It's better this way_, she reminded herself. "So, what did I miss?"

"We were planning out our summer map," Diana said. "You know where to go when, at whose house and so on."

"Oh! OK!" Heidi nodded leaning in slightly closer to her friends.

The quartet were currently barricaded in one of the compartments of the Hogwarts Express, already a good two hours had passed by since the trains departure from Hogsmead.

"I suggest coming to my house first, I don't wanna be alone with granny this week," Neville said and the girls nodded.

"Sure, we'll just have to pick up Dudley and we'll be there tomorrow," Diana told him.

"That sounds good," Hermione agreed. "We should ask your Grandmother to help us get started on our Defense lessons; after all we don't know who our professor will be nest year. It's such a shame that professor Lockhart left," Hermione sighed sadly.

"Yeah, big shame," Diana said sarcastically.

"Speaking of lessons," Heidi said turning to give her sister a pointed look. "You still haven't told me how you managed to score that Exceeds Expectations in Herbology!"

"I studied really hard," said Diana throwing her sister a pointed glare. Ever since their grade results had come, her sister and Hermione kept pressing her for information on how she'd managed to get such good grades, despite the fact that she'd yet to open a single book which wasn't related to healing magic, a subject to which she was completely devoted to.

"Really?" Heidi asked skeptically.

"Really!" said Diana snappishly. As much as she loved her sister, there was just something good about having someone there which you could confide in and know that that being was entirely yours, a secret from everybody else around, which nobody had to know about, something which belonged only to her! And as selfish as it might sound, that's how Diana wanted to keep Tom Riddle, a secret from everybody else.

"Fine!" Heidi said moodily and turned away from her sister. She knew she was hiding something, but she couldn't exactly blame her, after all, she hadn't told her about the fact that she was taking sleeping potion every night either, so she guessed they were even in some way, for now at least.

"Fine!" Diana turned towards Neville and began a hushed conversation with him, while Heidi, in turn, began whispering to Hermione. Neville and Hermione rolled their eyes at the childish behavior and sighed in defeat. It looked like they were about to have a loooooong summer ahead of them.

**AN: PLEAS READ!**

So, second year is finished, sorry if it seemed kind of rushed, but there really wasn't anything else left for this year, so, yeah.

Now, for my main problem: third year. The problem with this is, I'm barely half-way into writing chapter one of POA and my finals are due to start in three weeks time, and I have projects to complete and all the other blah, blah, stuff...so, seeing as I'm gonna be rather busy in the upcoming two months, I've decided to let it up to the readers' choice as to how I'll publish year three. Now, you have two options:

You let me take a break from fanfic and finish writing POA, then, when I'm done, I start posting the chapters one per week (as per normal), and start writing GOF in the meantime.

Or

I post the chapters as I write them.

Now, I'm sure you understand the advantages and disadvantages that both options have, so, I'll leave it up to you to choose. Go to my profile and vote for whichever you want, and I'll be announcing the results of the pool in two week's time in the form of the first chapter of POA (if that is what you decide), or an announcement on my profile page. Thanks to those who've reviewed and favorited the story, and oh, before I forget, Neville will be paired up with Luna (she topped Ginny with one vote).


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